• Spiritual and knightly orders - briefly Orders of the Middle Ages
• Catacombs and Necropolises and dusk vs dawn
• Quest Day of Destiny: Dark Elf's Fate
• What is self-flagellation Self-flagellation poe
• Find the rank of a matrix: methods and examples
• 9/11 survivors
• The worst floods in human history
• When a colleague is a sneak If a schemer wound up in a team or how to fight competently
• The best sniper The best sniper in the world
• What does the devil look like Who is Satan and her pictures

"White Army, Black Baron,
again they are preparing the royal throne for us ... "

The final stage of the struggle for power between the Bolsheviks and the Whites, which took place in Ukraine, was the war with Wrangel in Northern Tavria and in the Crimea.

In February 1920, after the surrender of Odessa, the White Guard troops no longer occupied an inch of Ukrainian territory.
But in the "soft underbelly" of Soviet Ukraine on the Crimean Peninsula (which was part of Russia), the White Guard forces were concentrated.
True, these parts of the defeated Volunteer Army did not particularly disturb the Soviet command.
After all, it considered its primary goal at that time to be the defeat of Denikin's troops in the Don and Kuban.

From January 8, 1920, the Crimean Peninsula was successfully held by the 3rd Army (Crimean) Corps of General Slashchev.
He was also given parts:
- Don Brigade,
- Terek brigade,
- Chechen combined regiment,
- 1st Infantry Regiment,
- Caucasian regiment,
- Slavic regiment.
Only 2.9 thousand bayonets and 4.2 thousand sabers.

In his first order after the withdrawal to the Crimea, General Slashchev stated:

“I took command of the troops defending the Crimea. I declare to everyone that as long as I am in command of the troops, I will not leave Crimea and I make the defense of Crimea a matter not only of duty, but also of honor.”

The Reds knew about the small number of White Guard units in the area.
And they tried on January 23, 1920 to carry out an offensive in the Crimea.

At first, the Soviet units (the 46th division of R.P. Eideman) even managed to take Perekop with its fortifications and the Armenian Bazaar (Armyansk).
But Slashchev threw his reserves into battle. The counterattack of his forces broke through the red units were thrown out of the Perekop fortified line.

The 8th cavalry division of V. M. Primakov was transferred to the aid of Eideman near Perekop.
On January 28, the assault was repeated.
And ended with the same result.

Once again, the Reds stormed the Crimea on February 5, 1920.
This time through the ice of the frozen Sivash.
But this assault was also repulsed by General Slashchev. And this despite the fact that his forces were many times smaller than those of the attackers.
It must be said that the winter cold forced the White Guards to keep only one patrol in position. And the main forces of Slashchev were in settlements, in the vicinity of fortifications.
As soon as the Reds broke through the lines of fortifications and, tired of battles and frosts, moved along the Perekop defile, Slashchev's fresh forces concentrated and delivered unexpected blows to the Red units.
But Slashchev's tactics were very risky. And it might not have worked if the Reds had managed to concentrate large masses of cavalry on the front line of the offensive ...

On February 24, the Reds broke through the Chongar crossing.
But they were again rejected by Slashchev.

During the fighting in February, the 46th division again occupied the Armenian Bazaar.
Groping for weaknesses in the defense of the whites, the 138th brigade of Markiyan Germanovich made a bold raid on the heavily fortified point of Tyup-Dzhankoy, located on the Crimean side of the Chongar Strait.
However, the central node of resistance - Perekop - remained with the Whites ...

A new attempt to break into the Crimea was made by the Reds in March.
On March 8, 1920, the strike group of the 13th Army went on the offensive.
And she broke through the defenses of the whites on the Perekop Isthmus.
I took Perekop and occupied Yushun (Yishun) in 2 days.
But for the development of success, the forces were not enough. But the front did not give reinforcements.
The White Guards urgently transferred reserves here. And with an unexpected and strong counterattack at the Yushun fortifications, the red units were defeated.
And they expelled them from the Crimea to their original positions. And then further - to the line of Novo-Pavlovka, Chaplinka, Pervo-Konstantinovka.

After this unsuccessful assault, the Soviet command temporarily “forgot” about the Crimean prisoners.
It left only a barrier from the 13th Army at the exit from the Crimea. This barrier consisted of 9 thousand bayonets and sabers.

The failures of the Red troops in the January-March battles of 1920 allowed the White Guards, who settled in the Crimea, to put themselves in order.
Reinforced by the remnants of Denikin's troops transferred here from the Caucasus and Ukraine, they became a real threat to Soviet power.
"Crimean splinter" for a long time settled in the body of the Republic of Soviets ...

In April 1920, a group of troops was formed by the command of the Southwestern Front and the 13th Army.
It included:
- Latvian division,
- 42nd Infantry Division,
- 3rd infantry division,
- 8th Cavalry Division.
The overall command of this group of troops was assigned to F. N. Kalnin.
She was tasked with "going over to an energetic and decisive offensive on the Perekop Isthmus", with the goal of occupying the Crimea.
The brigades of the 46th division, stationed on the Sivash, were instructed "to capture the Sivash and Chongar bridges at the first opportunity." And then assist the Perekop group.

The command of the front and the 13th Army set some decisive goals for the Red troops.
Yes, that's just the proper preparation for the offensive was not carried out.
In addition, the enemy also learned about the plans of the Reds.
And, of course, he tried to take the necessary measures.
The Whites managed to concentrate the 1st Army Corps of General Kutepov here.

The Red offensive began on the morning of April 13, 1920.
It was carried out by disparate forces.
First, the Latvian division occupied the Turkish Wall with a swift attack.
For further development of success, support was needed. But parts of the second echelon were late.
Meanwhile, the Whites, having regrouped their forces, brought fresh reserves into the battle.
The Latvians repulsed four fierce frontal attacks of the white cavalry.
Then the Wrangelites threw into battle about another five hundred cavalry. They were supported by tanks and armored vehicles. They hit the flank of the Latvian riflemen.
The fight lasted all day.
Both sides suffered huge losses.
In the end, parts of the Latvian division were forced to leave the Turkish Wall.
They had to return to their original positions ...

V. A. Savchenko writes:

“They took possession of the exits from the Perekop and Salikovsky fashion shows on the mainland. The landing forces of the Wrangelites captured the town of Genichesk and the Sivash fortifications with the stations of Sivash and Salkovo, the Chongar Peninsula. This first offensive of the new army raised the spirit of the fighters and the rating of the new commander in chief.

“On the morning of April 14, the battle in the Perekop direction flared up with renewed vigor. A large grouping of enemy infantry and cavalry, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, broke through the positions of our troops north of the Perekop Isthmus and pushed them back to Preobrazhenka. The Whites tried to gain a foothold on the new frontier, but with a swift counterattack the 8th Cavalry Division overturned them and again threw them behind the Turkish Wall. However, this time it was not possible to develop success. The advantage was on the side of the enemy. Both sides remained basically in their original positions before the offensive.
Having beaten off the offensive of the Soviet troops, the enemy tried to strengthen his position by landing two assault forces. On April 14, in the area of ​​​​the village of Kirillovka on the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, south of Melitopol, the Alekseevsky regiment landed with a force of up to 800 bayonets with one battery with the task of cutting the railway in the Akimovka region. The enemy did not achieve surprise. Komsomol pilot Yulian Krekis, who took off for reconnaissance in the morning, discovered the landing force. The chief of aviation of the 13th Army, V.I. Korovin, threw all seven serviceable aircraft against him. By bombing, the pilots flooded the barge with ammunition and forced the whites to take the ships out to sea.

The operation was led by Yury Vladimirovich Sablin, who had just been appointed head of the 46th division.
The division commander himself led the red regiments into the attack.
During the fighting, part of the white paratroopers was pressed to the sea. And destroyed. Another part, under cover of fire from 10 ships, managed to break through to Genichesk.
Sablin led street fighting until the complete destruction of the landing force.

Wrangel in his memoirs was forced to admit that the Alekseyevites:

“Without showing proper stamina, they began to retreat, and suffered significant losses.”

On April 15, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Khorly, west of Perekop, the Wrangel troops landed the Drozdov Infantry Division with 16 guns and 60 machine guns.
But again, the red pilots found the landing in time.
And the merit in this was the pilot Alexander Petrenko.
Warned by the pilot, the Red troops adequately met the Whites.
Even the fire support of the British warships did not help.
As a result, having lost more than 350 people killed in two-day battles, several guns and machine guns, the Drozdovites retreated. With great difficulty they made their way to their own on the Perekop Isthmus.

I. Dubinsky wrote about these events:

“And in the fierce battles for Perekop on April 14 and 16, 1920, when, under the bayonet attacks of the soldiers of the Mining and Latvian divisions, the Wrangel caponiers erected by French sappers crackled, Primakov’s cavalry regiments, reflecting the cruel blows of the white cavalry, reliably guarded the flanks and rear of the attacking infantry. True, ours did not advance further than the Turkish Wall, but after, when the enemy managed to land a powerful officer landing of General Vilkovsky in Khorly, they were not allowed deeper than the Preobrazhenka farm.

After that, the hostilities in the Crimean direction temporarily took on a positional character ...

Already at the end of April 1920, Wrangel approved a plan for a general offensive from the Crimea.
The plan included:
- Lightning capture of the Dnieper - Aleksandrovsk - Berdyansk region.
- With the success of the 1st stage of the operation, the 2nd stage followed - the advance to the Dnieper - Sinelnikovo - Grishino - Taganrog line.
- And then the 3rd - an attack on the Don and Kuban.
Assuming to transfer the main blow of the offensive to the Don and Kuban, Wrangel expected to leave only 1/3 of his forces to cover the Crimea.
He did not believe in the mobilization capabilities of Ukraine (realizing that it would be difficult for a Ukrainian peasant to be drawn into the Russian army). And, did not want to face the army of Petliura.
Wrangel believed that it was in the Don and Kuban that the main human resource, the Cossacks, was located. And it could give the Russian army another 50-70 thousand fighters for a new campaign against Moscow.
If the general offensive failed, it was planned to capture the food reserves of Northern Tavria and again hide behind the isthmus.
Wrangel saw the success of the offensive operation in connection with the organization of a broad front with:
- the Polish army,
- parts of Petliura, Bulakh-Balakhovich and
- Ukrainian rebels,
- with uprisings in the Don and Kuban.

For May 1920, the command of the Southwestern Front was preparing a new offensive against the Crimea.
However, it was thwarted by events in the West.
There, at that time, Poland, in alliance with Petliura, began a joint offensive against the Red Army.
On May 6, the Reds leave Kyiv.
However, having pulled up troops from the Caucasus, released after the defeat of Denikin, the Reds recapture Kyiv.
And they threaten Poland with a breakthrough of the front.
To save its ally, France asks Wrangel to hit the Reds from the south and thereby help the Poles. At the same time, he promises the "Black Baron" both material support and diplomatic recognition.

And then - during the Soviet-Polish war - when the Soviet troops were drawn into the battle for Kyiv, Wrangel's "Russian Army" launched an offensive.

It should be noted that the army, led by Baron Wrangel, was well equipped with machine guns, guns, armored cars, airplanes, and even a novelty of military equipment - tanks.
By the beginning of June, it numbered up to 30 thousand bayonets and sabers.
Taking into account the personnel of the reserve, the garrisons of the Crimean cities, military schools and schools, rear units and institutions, the total number of Wrangel's army reached 125 - 130 thousand people.
In addition to the ground forces, the "ruler of the South of Russia" had significant naval forces.
These were the remnants of the once powerful Black Sea Fleet. The battleship Volya, 3 cruisers, 4 squadron and 5 small destroyers and other ships were based in Sevastopol.
The Wrangelites could also rely on the strong fleet of England, the USA, France, located on the Black Sea.

On the Perekop shaft, Wrangel ordered to hang a huge poster "Perekop - the key to Moscow."
He saw far-reaching goals ...
According to the plans of the Wrangel headquarters, developed jointly with the military missions of the Entente powers, the White Guard army in the summer of 1920 was to capture:
- Northern Tavria,
- Donbass,
- Don,
- Kuban.
The calculation was to:
- to deprive the Soviet Republic of the richest coal and grain regions,
- purchase the necessary supply and replenishment base for the army,
- create a new center of struggle against Soviet power and
- deploy in the future broad offensive operations.

The Wrangels were opposed by the 13th Army (commander R.P. Eideman, member of the Revolutionary Military Council V.P. Zatonsky).
She had half the number of troops and significantly worse weapons (12,176 bayonets and 4,630 cavalry).

Wrangel's offensive began in early June 1920.
Then the reorganized 2nd Army Corps of General Slashchev was transferred from Dzhankoy to Feodosia. And he was put there on board.
And through the Kerch Strait was transferred to the northern coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.
On June 6, 1920, during a strong storm, Slashchev managed to make a successful landing in the Genichesk area (near the village of Kirillovka).
The body consisted of:
- 13th Infantry Division,
- 34th Infantry Division and
- Terek-Astrakhan Cossack brigade.
He counted:
- 10 thousand bayonets and sabers,
- 50 guns,
- 2 armored cars.
Before the landing was tasked:
- Cut the railroad Simferopol - Melitopol.
- And then strike at the rear of the units of the 13th Army operating in the areas of Chongar and Perekop.

The Reds turned out to be ill-prepared to deal with the landing of Slashchev.
With more than a triple superiority in forces, Slashchev launched an offensive against Melitopol.
Its units were rapidly moving north.
Stubborn fighting unfolded at the railway station Akimovka.
Under the onslaught of the Whites, the Soviet troops were forced to retreat.
The corps quickly moved north and occupied Melitopol on June 9th.
With this, he cut the Simferopol-Sinelnikovo railway, on which the 13th Army was based.
However, fierce battles for Melitopol continued for several more days.
The Reds tried at all costs to retake the city.

With the abandonment of Melitopol by the Reds, the armored trains operating here were cut off from their own. Because the Whites blew up the bridge to the south of the city.
However, the sailors decided to break out of the ring at any cost.
Overcoming the enemy's barriers, the armored trains made their way to the blown-up bridge.
While the armored train No. 85 repelled enemy attempts to approach the bridge with the fire of its guns, the personnel were thrown into the construction of a temporary crossing over the river.

The commander of the group of armored trains A. V. Polupanov described the selfless efforts of the fighters as follows:

“They lowered an armored platform into the water, dropped freight cars on it. They had to be covered with thousands of pounds of earth. Shovels, picks, buckets, stretchers were used. Hundreds of people, drenched in sweat, under enemy fire, like ants, dragged earth, stones, rammed the embankment. The wounded and the dead were carried away. Finally, the embankment was ready, the sleepers and rails were laid.

At night, armored trains crossed this makeshift bridge and fought their way through Melitopol to their own ...

At dawn on June 7, light and heavy guns hit from behind the Perekop fortifications.
With the support of tanks, armored trains and aircraft, the 1st Army Corps of General Kutepov broke out of the Crimea.
It was made up of selected officer divisions:
- Kornilov Infantry,
- Markovskaya infantry,
- Drozdovskaya infantry,
- 1st cavalry,
- 2nd cavalry.
The Whites here were opposed by only 2 rifle divisions of the Reds:
- 3rd and
- Latvian.

For 2 days in the region of Pervokonstantinovka - Preobrazhenka - Vladimirovka - Chaplinka there were fierce battles.
Both sides suffered heavy losses.

Wrangel wrote in his memoirs:

“Tanks and armored cars moved ahead of our units, destroying barbed wire. The Reds offered desperate resistance. The Latvian units fought especially stubbornly. Red gunners, having installed guns between houses in the villages of Preobrazhenka and Pervokonstantinovka, shot at point blank range tanks. Several tanks were destroyed."

The sudden blow of the whites forced the 13th army to retreat.
Escaped from the Crimea through Perekop, Kutepov broke the "veil" of the 13th Red Army.
And by June 13, he took up positions along the Dnieper from the mouth to Kakhovka.

A tactical bridgehead was in the hands of the enemy.
"Black Baron" set his sights on Ukraine and Donbass.

On June 7, the Consolidated Cavalry Corps of General Pisarev, with the support of tanks and armored trains, also set out from the Chongar positions on the Genichesk fortified area.
It included:
- 1st Kuban division,
- 3rd Kuban division and
- Chechen cavalry division.

The 46th Rifle Division fought stubbornly against him.
The 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division named after M.F. Blinov was thrown to her aid.
On the night of June 10, the 3rd brigade of this division made a daring raid on Novomikhailovka.
There was the headquarters and some parts of the White Guard Chechen division.
Having scouted the location of the enemy, the brigade carefully prepared for the strike.
To approach the village silently, the hooves of the horses were wrapped in rags, and the wheels of the wagons were wrapped in straw.
Taken by surprise, the divisional headquarters was destroyed.
Blinovtsy killed 600 and captured more than 1000 Whites. They even captured the headquarters and General Revishin himself.
But this was the first and only success of the red cavalry at that moment.
One, even such a division as Blinovskaya, could not provide a decisive turning point on the whole front.
New bloody battles ensued...

The 2nd Blinovskaya was slowly melting away in continuous raids behind enemy lines.
She was spinning in saber whirlwinds, taking on all the fury of the rabid grunts of Guselshchikov and Kalinin ...

It must be said that the High Command of the Red Army and the command of the Southwestern Front underestimated the combat capabilities of the Wrangel army, the scale and danger of its offensive.
They saw in it only a private operation to divert the attention of our units from the Polish front.
This explains the difficult directive of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front of June 10, 1920. It spoke about the transition of the 13th Army to the offensive in order to eliminate the enemy's Perekop group.
Fulfilling this directive, units of the 13th Army went on the offensive in a number of sectors of the front.
On the outskirts of the Crimea, fierce battles unfolded again ...

In order to break the resistance of the Red troops, Wrangel threw to the front, which was in his reserve, the strong Don Cossack Corps of General Abramov.
The 1st and 2nd Don Cavalry and 3rd Don Infantry Divisions set out from the Chongar crossing towards the northwest - towards Melitopol.
And then - to Nogaisk and Berdyansk.
He had an order: to advance in the direction of the Don along the Sea of ​​Azov.
Under pressure from superior enemy forces, the troops of the 13th Army began to retreat with battles.
On June 12, the Wrangel troops captured Alyoshki.
And they began to control the left bank of the Dnieper from the mouth to Kakhovka.

On the 300-kilometer front, stretched in an arc, fierce battles ensued these days.
The 13th Soviet Army under the command of R. Eideman tried to hold back the onslaught of the enemy.
But the army corps of Kutepov and Slashchev, together with the group of General Barbovich, leaving the Crimea, knocked down units of the 13th Army from the lines, overturned and drove them into the steppe.

During the 1st week of the Wrangel offensive, the Reds lost:
- almost all of Northern Tavria,
- about 7 thousand prisoners,
- 27 guns,
- 2 armored trains.
However, a week later, the White offensive stopped.
Parts of Wrangel pulled up their reserves, secured the occupied areas, fought off the counterattacks of the red cavalry.
And then we moved forward again.

With an almost ceremonial march, the whites occupied one fortified area after another. They spilled over Northern Tavria from Kakhovka to Melitopol.
It was quite likely that the white cavalry would break through to Taganrog, to the Don.

The Soviet command sent 3 more divisions and 2 separate brigades against Wrangel, the Zhloba cavalry corps (except for units of the 13th Army).

At the cost of heavy losses, the Wrangelites managed to capture Oleshki, Melitopol, Kakhovka.
On June 22, Baron Wrangel moved his field headquarters to Melitopol.
On June 24, the Wrangel landing force occupied Berdyansk for two days.
And in July, the landing group of Captain Kochetov landed at Ochakov.
At the same time, Makhno's activities intensified in the red rear.

Wrangel sought:
- capture Northern Tavria, Donbass, Don and the North Caucasus,
- go to the rear of the troops of the South-Western Front and
- disrupt their offensive against Poland.

In the twentieth of June, the advance of Wrangel's troops was finally suspended.
By June 24, the front had stabilized on the line Kherson - Nikopol - Veliky Tokmak - Berdyansk.

As a result of the June battles, the troops of the 13th Army were divided by the Dnieper into 2 parts:
- Right bank group.
She took up defense at the turn from Kherson to Nikopol.
- Left Bank.
She entrenched herself on the line Vasilievka - Bolshoi Tokmak - Berdyansk.

Wrangel came out of the "Crimean bottle".
He inflicted a serious defeat on the troops of the 13th Army and captured the rich grain regions of Northern Tavria.

But!
Despite temporary successes, Wrangel, however, failed to carry out his plans:
- surround and completely defeat the 13th army and
- go to the rear of the Soviet troops who were conducting military operations against the White Poles.
“They also abandoned their planned offensive against the Donbass.

However, the offensive of the Wrangelites, although it could not delay the successful advance of the Red Army in the west, to some extent eased the position of the Polish troops.

The Soviet command decided not to allow Wrangel to gain a foothold in Northern Tavria.
And began to prepare a counterattack.

The plan called for concentrated attacks on the enemy's flanks to encircle and destroy his main forces.
At the same time, he took into account the stretching of the Wrangel front for more than 300 kilometers. And he took into account its configuration, representing an arc with its apex facing north.

The Red Command created 2 shock groups:

Fedko group.
It included:
* 3rd division,
* 42nd division,
* 46th division,
*two separate teams.
She was supposed to strike from the north, from the Aleksandrovsk region, crush Kutepov’s corps and go to Melitopol.

Goons group.
Under the joint command of the Rednecks were:
* 1st separate Cavalry Corps of Dmitry Zhloba himself,
* 16th Cavalry Division of Semyon Volynsky,
* Blinovskaya (2nd Cavalry Division) under the temporary command of Dybenko and
* 40th Rifle Division.
Objective: to break through behind enemy lines in the Chernihiv direction with a strike from the east, destroy Abramov's Don Corps and strategic reserves near Melitopol.
Then go to the rear of Kutepov's corps, cut off the Wrangel retreat routes to the Crimea ...

On June 27, 1920, the counteroffensive of the 13th Army began.
At first, failures befell Fedko's group.
She not only failed to break Kutepov's corps, but she herself was thrown back and put to flight.
And the whites moved to Aleksandrovsk.

At the same time, the Redneck group achieved some success.
She, quietly concentrating at the front line, broke through the infantry line of Abramov's corps, crashed into the rear of the whites.
On June 28, parts of the Redneck rushed to the breakthrough.
Infantry divisions rushed after the cavalrymen, spreading along the flanks. They went behind enemy lines.

Mighty and swiftly rushed at the enemy, Dmitry Zhloba's cavalry corps.
He suddenly fell upon the Don Wrangel division.
And with a decisive blow, he defeated several White Guard regiments in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bGreater Tokmak.
And took possession of the Upper Tokmak.
Over the next 2 days, the Consolidated Corps of the Redneck continued to move forward with battles.
The 40th Rifle Division defeated the enemy's 3rd Don Division and reached Nogaisk.

The Wrangel front was broken through and the Redneck Consolidated Corps entered the operational space.
Stubborn battles unfolded on a broad front from the Dnieper to Berdyansk.
There was a real opportunity to completely break up in parts the Don Corps of the Whites, which had not recovered from the blow.
For this, it was only necessary:
- change the previously approved direction of the main attack on Melitopol and
- turn the main forces of the Consolidated Corps to the south.
However, Zhloba showed no initiative in this matter.
And the command of the 13th Army, by order of July 1, confirmed the previously set task of attacking Melitopol with the main forces.
The actions of the Red troops in other areas did not provide significant assistance to the Zhloba corps either ...
Parts of the Right-Bank Group of the 13th Army crossed the Dnieper only on July 1.
After stubborn battles, they captured Malaya and Bolshaya Kakhovka, the Korsun Monastery.
However, they failed to hold the bridgehead.
And after 2 days they again retreated beyond the Dnieper. And went on the defensive.
So there was no proper pressure on their part on the White Guard troops ...

Yes, and Redneck was very carried away. And he lost contact with the infantry divisions.
The chiefs also failed here. They slowly made a breakthrough and left the cavalry without support.

Wrangel quickly took advantage of:
- the passivity of the troops of the 13th army in other sectors and
- a tactical blunder by Dmitry Zhloba and infantry commanders.

He pulled up reserves, started exhausting battles at the turn of the Yushanly River and closed the encirclement.
Still not knowing what had happened, Goon ordered:
- 1st Cavalry Division to continue the offensive with the capture of crossings on the Molochnaya River, and
- 2nd Blinovskaya take Melitopol.
At dawn on July 3, the Blinovites rushed at the enemy cavalry, crushed, suffered ... they were ready to turn the whole course of the battle.
Alas!
The corps of generals Slashchev and Abramov surrounded the red cavalry.
Airplanes were bombarded from the sky, against which the Zhlobins had no protection. Walking at a low level, the white pilots shot the red horsemen point-blank. An unprecedented beating of the cavalry from the air began in the bare, sunlit steppe ...
Armored cars of Wrangel broke into the colony of Lichtenfeld, where the headquarters of the entire strike group was. Strong machine-gun fire drove the remnants of the headquarters reserve in a northwestern direction, towards Bolshoi Tokmak. But here the Zhlobins came under heavy fire from armored trains and rolled south in complete disarray.
Only the courage and resourcefulness of Dmitry Zhloba helped at least a quarter of the corps to break out of the enemy ring (July 6).

As a result of the complete defeat of the Zhloba group, up to 9 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured, 1 thousand Red Army soldiers were killed. White trophies amounted to 3 thousand horses, 60 guns, 200 machine guns.

Thus, the offensive of the troops of the 13th Army in Northern Tavria failed.
The fighting against the Wrangelites showed that the Crimean sector of the Southwestern Front had become one of the most important theaters of struggle against the counter-revolution.
The "Crimean splinter" has turned into a rather painful abscess on the body of the Soviet Republic...

On July 10, 1920, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) addressed all party organizations with a letter "To Baron Wrangel":

“At the most difficult moment of the struggle of Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants with the Polish gentry, General Wrangel sent his troops into the most fertile districts of Ukraine and is now trying to break through to the Don. His movement has already done incalculable harm to the Soviet Republic. Every even temporary and insignificant success of the Wrangel rebels threatens with even greater troubles. Bread, coal, oil, intended to save the workers and peasants of Russia, are under threat. The Donets Basin, the Don and the Kuban, liberated from Denikin by the blood of the best sons of the working people, are under the blows of Wrangel. In the deep rear of the Red Army, victoriously advancing on the Western Front, the White Guard bandits are wreaking havoc and threatening to make the coming winter no less difficult than the winter of 1919...
On the Crimean front, we are now paying only for the fact that in the winter we did not finish off the remnants of Denikin's White Guards. The famine, the disruption of transport, and the shortage of fuel will last longer because at the time sufficient energy, perseverance and determination were not shown in carrying through the rout of the southern counter-revolution.
No further delay! Wrangel must be destroyed, just as Kolchak and Denikin were destroyed ... In the coming days, the attention of the Party must be focused on the Crimean Front! Mobilized comrades, volunteers must head south. It must be explained to every worker, Red Army soldier, that victory over Poland is impossible without victory over Wrangel. The last stronghold of the generals' counter-revolution must be destroyed.
The red flag of the workers' revolution must fly over the Crimea.

In early July, the Bolsheviks began to strengthen the 13th Army.
Ieronim Petrovich Uborevich became its commander (since July 16, 1920).
The 13th Army received significant reinforcements:
- From the reserve of the South-Western Front, she was transferred to the 15th Infantry Division.
- By decision of the Commander-in-Chief, the 1st, 9th, 23rd and 51st rifle and 9th cavalry divisions, the Siberian brigade, 2 brigades and several small units from the Reserve Army, 7 armored cars, 1 fighter aviation division and 2 reconnaissance squads.
For the best use of aviation, all aircraft of the Crimean sector of the front were united under the unified command of I. U. Pavlov.

To help the army, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front, by order of July 16, created the 2nd Cavalry Army.
Commander - O. I. Gorodovikov, and from August 30 - F. K. Mironov.
Members of the Revolutionary Military Council - E. A. Shchadenko and K. A. Makoshin.
Its backbone was made up of the most combat-ready:
- 2nd Stavropol named after M. F. Blinov division and
- 21st division.
The army also included:
- 16th and
- 20th division.

The second Cavalry was immediately thrown into the gap behind enemy lines.
She passed in a raid in the depths of his defense, from the Zherebets-Orekhov region to Kakhovka.
But the horsemen were not supported by the rifle units of the 13th Army.
By the end of the raid, the 2nd Cavalry ran out of steam and almost lost its combat effectiveness.
Of the 9 thousand fighters who went into the breakthrough, about 1500 remained in the ranks, and no more than 500 of them were combat-ready.

After the victory over Zhloba and Fedko, the Wrangelites regrouped:
- the Don and Consolidated Corps were merged,
- Slashchev's corps from the northern sector of the front was transferred to the west, took up defensive positions along the Dnieper,
- and Kutepov's corps arrived in its place.
And after that, the whites launched a new offensive, not allowing the Soviet units to come to their senses.

On July 15, Kutepov's corps broke through the northern sector of the Reds' defense and captured Orekhov.
At the same time, he defeated parts of the 16th and 20th cavalry divisions, the 40th rifle division.

By the end of July, Soviet troops in the Crimean sector of the Southwestern Front consisted of:
- 40 thousand bayonets,
- 5.6 thousand sabers,
- 247 guns,
- 6 armored trains and
- 45 aircraft.

In early August, it was planned to launch an offensive against Wrangel.

But the Whites forestalled the intentions of the Reds.
They were the first to take action.

In total, in Northern Tavria, the Wrangelites by this time had:
- 25 thousand bayonets,
- 10.5 thousand sabers,
- 178 guns and
- 33 aircraft.
In addition, they had another 14 thousand bayonets and sabers in reserve.

The double numerical superiority of the Whites over the Red troops in the cavalry gave them serious advantages. Because the flat nature of Northern Tavria facilitated the maneuver of the cavalry, made it possible to quickly concentrate it on decisive sectors of the front.
The situation for the Soviet troops was also complicated by the actions of the Makhnovist detachments in their rear ...

The plan of the White Guard offensive pursued broad strategic goals:
- defeat the grouping of Soviet troops in the Orekhov area,
- capture Aleksandrovsk and Yekaterinoslav,
- and then Donbass and Donetsk region.

On July 25, 1920, Wrangel, trying to help the retreating Polish army, launched a new offensive.
Having suddenly attacked units of the 3rd and 46th infantry divisions, the Drozdov and Markov infantry divisions of the enemy pushed them back.
Parts of the cavalry corps of General N. G. Babiev poured into the resulting gap.
The Whites occupied Orekhov, as well as the large settlement of Zherebets.

In late July - early August, the Whites continued their attacks along the entire front.
The main battles were fought in the Orekhov area.
From the Lower Serogoz, Wrangel additionally transferred here the cavalry corps of General I. G. Barbovich, reinforced with armored vehicles.
At the cost of heavy losses, the Whites managed to capture the Pologi railway junction.

It must be said that in August the Russian army noticeably increased and strengthened.
The defeat of the Zhloba cavalry made it possible to put 3,000 Cossacks on trophy horses. Another 5,000 horses were provided by the mobilization of horses in Northern Tavria.
Parts of General Bredov arrived in the Crimea, from Poland through Romania - about 9 thousand fighters.
Peasants and workers (up to 10 thousand people), as well as 5 thousand captured Red Army soldiers, were mobilized into the Russian army.
Several Makhnovist and Petliura chieftains went over to the side of Wrangel: Volodin, Savchenko, Chaly, Khmara ...
Negotiations with Poland on the creation of the 3rd Russian Army (from the detachments of Generals Bredov and Peremykin, Ataman Bulakh-Balakhovich, captured Red Army Cossacks, which together amounted to 70 thousand fighters) advanced.

However, by the beginning of August, as a result of the decisive actions of the 13th Army and the 2nd Cavalry Army, the Wrangel offensive was suspended.
Moreover, the Soviet troops themselves launched a counteroffensive, pushing the Wrangelites to the south.
On August 4, they drove the White Guards out of Aleksandrovsk.
August 6 - from Orekhovo and Polog.
On August 8, the Reds took Berdyansk.

Fearing to suffer heavy losses, Wrangel gave the order to withdraw to the Melitopol-Big Tokmak line.

It should be noted that the battles near Warsaw forced the command of the Red Army to send the best forces to the Polish front.
All this made it possible for Wrangel to develop the August offensive campaign.
The main objective of the campaign was the landing of about 12-13 thousand soldiers in the Kuban to force a general uprising of the Cossacks and capture the Kuban.

During the fighting in the Orekhovo-Aleksandrovsky direction, Wrangel landed 3 troops on the Kuban and in the Novorossiysk region (from August 1 to 21).
This was done to force a general uprising of the Cossacks and the capture of the Kuban.

White blows in August 1920 rained down in the direction of Aleksandrovsk and Gulyai-Pole.

With the help of the fleet, the Wrangelites also tried to capture Nikolaev and Ochakovo.

Upon learning of the first successes of the Whites in the Kuban, Lenin wrote:

“In connection with the uprisings, especially in the Kuban, and then in Siberia, the danger of Wrangel becomes enormous, and within the Central Committee there is a growing desire to immediately make peace with bourgeois Poland ...”

Already on August 5, the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) recognized the priority of the Wrangel front over the Polish one, but at the same time it was decided not to weaken the pressure on Warsaw ...

The Reds, on the crest of temporary successes on the Polish front, decided on the 2nd general counteroffensive in Northern Tavria.

The goal is to defeat Slashchev's corps and reach Perekop.
Cut off thereby the army of Wrangel in Northern Tavria.

For this, the Uborevich district of Berislav-Kakhovka (82 km from Perekop) created the Right-Bank Group of Forces - a shock fist of 4 divisions:
- Latvian (Chief Division K. A. Stutsk),
- 52nd (chief division M. Ya. Germanovich),
- 15th Inzenskaya (division commander P. A. Solodukhin) and
- 51st (division commander V.K. Blucher).
Robert Petrovich Eideman was placed at the head of this group.

Recalling the preparations for the operation, Eideman wrote:

“The left flank rested on the Dnieper River. Wrangel considered him well-to-do. Wrangel knew: the Dnieper is a powerful water barrier, the forcing of which involves absolutely exceptional risk and enormous difficulties. Will the Red Army dare for a serious operation across the Dnieper? .. He considered the Red Army incapable of such an operation ... According to the Wrangelites, only “people who lost their heads” (Slashchev’s definition) could go into battle, having the Dnieper behind them. And yet the Red Army went across the Dnieper ... The whole calculation was based on surprise.

The counteroffensive of the Soviet troops began on the night of August 7, in the region of the lower reaches of the Dnieper, near Berislav.
The width of the Dnieper here did not exceed 400 meters.
On its left bank in this place there were no floodplains and channels that could make it difficult to cross.
The elevated right bank skirted Kakhovka in a semicircle. And this created favorable conditions for artillery support of the crossing and the first actions of the Red troops on the other side.

And the night turned out in the south, dark and thick.
Boats and rafts filled with fighters rolled away from the right bank. Rowing without a splash, observing maximum silence. Every Red Army soldier understood that the whites had to be taken by surprise.

Wrangel considered his left flank, which rested against the Dnieper, invulnerable.

He repeated to his staff officers, who proposed to reinforce the Kakhovka sector of the front with artillery and machine guns:

“Only a madman can decide to attack with a river behind him. Nothing threatens us from here!”

Wrangel's opinion was completely shared by General Slashchev, whose 2nd Army Corps occupied positions on the left bank of the Dnieper.

He reported to Wrangel's headquarters:

“Our positions at Kakhovka are strong and reliable. The Reds will never dare to cross here.”

The first boats safely moored to the shore.
And the fighters with a loud cry of "Hurrah!" attacked the enemy.
Rare rifle shots were replaced by the crackle of machine guns.
Eideman transferred Leonid Govorov to the artillery division:
"Open fire!"
Explosions of shells shook the air. Batteries methodically sent shells to the left bank. The gunners hit hard. Gradually, the crackle of the White Guard machine guns subsided.
Taken by surprise, the Wrangelites, firing randomly, rushed about in the trenches and trenches. The officers, confident that the Reds would not dare to cross the Dnieper, had a booze the day before. And now, without understanding anything, they gave stupid orders, sowing panic and confusion ...

Here is how Eideman recalled this:

“Finally, shots crackled on the right bank. It struck, rushed over the sleepy expanse of the river - "Hurrah!" So ours are there. So ours are on the other side. Hooray! Almost simultaneously, the white machine guns woke up. The Whites were clearly taken by surprise ... Subsequent events confirmed the complete surprise of our offensive for the Whites. As it turned out later, Slashchev’s headquarters located in Kakhovka was drunk on the night of August 7 and did not expect our offensive.

At noon, the commander of the Latvian division, Kirill Stutska, reported to Eideman by wire:

“Big and Small Kakhovka are ours! The enemy is retreating to the southeast!”

Eideman ordered him to pursue the enemy. And he began the crossing of the main forces.
Sappers, standing waist-deep in water, incredibly quickly - in 2 hours - connected both banks with a pontoon bridge. Infantry moved along it, then cavalry and artillery.
So the Reds successfully crossed the Dnieper at Kakhovka and Alyoshok.
The offensive of the Reds continued continuously for 3 days.
They pushed back parts of Slashchev, broke into the deep rear of the 2nd Corps.
The attackers did not reach their goal - Perekop - quite a bit. Just some 25 kilometers.
The Wrangelites, at the cost of extreme overvoltage, counterattacked to stop the advance of the Reds.
And then began the pursuit of the retreating Reds.
And pushed them back beyond the Dnieper...

Only in the area of ​​Kakhovka - on the left bank - did the Reds manage to hold an important bridgehead.
This bridgehead (its area did not exceed 216 square kilometers) was fortified by engineering units under the leadership of D. M. Karbyshev.
He was like a guest in the throat of the Wrangelites, since the possession of it kept for the Whites the risk of being cut off (by a blow from Kakhovka) from the Crimean peninsula.
The bridgehead pulled over a whole corps of the Wrangels.
By fettering their actions, he became an insurmountable obstacle in the implementation of Wrangel's plans to connect with Pilsudski's troops.

On August 10, the 51st Infantry Division of Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher, who arrived from Siberia, crossed to the bridgehead.
It was one of the best formations of the Red Army, more than once distinguished itself in battles against Kolchak.

Here is what Roman Gul wrote:

“At the head of the 51st division, carrying out the most important task of the offensive, Blucher went on the attack at Chaplinka and Kakhovka. On a broad front, to their full height, without dashes, under destructive shrapnel and machine-gun fire, dressed in red shirts, were the Blucherites; from the raid they took possession of the height at the Kulikovsky farm. Stunned by such an attack, White surrendered the height, but, having recovered, rushed to the counterattack. It was a terrible fight. Several times the height passed from the Blucherites to the Whites. Both the red Blucher and the white Kutepov fully appreciated each other - at night both retreated to their original positions.

Blucher was appointed commandant of the Kakhovka bridgehead.
He immediately issued an order:
"Defensive work to be carried out around the clock."
Day and night, intense suffering raged.
The Dnieper steppe was changing before our eyes. It was cut by deep trenches. Machine-gun and artillery crews burrowed into it. She was hiding behind a network of barbed wire ...

Simultaneously with the Right-Bank Group, the troops of the Left-Bank Group went on the offensive from the Orekhovo-Pologi region in the direction of Bolshoy Tokmak-Melitopol.

In August, Mironov's horsemen broke through the front line.
And they went for a walk along the Wrangel rear, having made a daring 220-kilometer raid.

Here is what M. Akulov and V. Petrov write:

“The 2nd Cavalry initially managed to make a hole in the defense of the Whites and on August 11 went to the rear of the enemy’s Bolshoi Tomak grouping. However, with an independent breakthrough of the front, the army prematurely scattered its forces. At the decisive moment, her flanks were exposed. Taking advantage of this, General Kutepov decided to surround and eliminate the red cavalry. With the support of tanks, armored cars and aviation, the Wrangel troops delivered a powerful blow to the right flank of the army, pushing the 1st Rifle and 20th Cavalry Divisions. The 9th cavalry regiment, led by the commander, rushed to their aid. For a short time, the enemy was detained, but soon, using their superiority in strength, the Wrangelites managed to cut Gorodovikov's cavalry into two parts.
A critical situation has arisen. The Whites continuously brought up fresh reserves with artillery and armored cars, inflicting more and more powerful blows. At 20 pm on August 11, the chiefs of the 2nd, 16th and 21st divisions that had pulled ahead, I. A. Rozhkov, S. B. Volynsky and M. F. Lysenko held a short meeting and decided to break through the enemy front with a joint blow and connect with the commander's group. The whites could not withstand the onslaught of the red cavalry, and the danger of encirclement was eliminated.
On August 12, the fierce battle continued. O. I. Gorodovikov reported that the infantry could only withstand it until 18 hours, after which it was withdrawn to the rear. Following her, the cavalry divisions began to withdraw. Heavy continuous battles with a superior in number and experienced enemy exhausted the fighters. The Revolutionary Military Council of the Army asked for a rest "for 4-5 days to put himself in order and accept replenishments." The Front granted this request.
By mid-August, hostilities in the area of ​​Bolshoy Tokmak and Melitopol had temporarily ceased.

Meanwhile, on the Kakhovka bridgehead, the fighting went on continuously.
The White Guards furiously stormed the positions of the Right-Bank Group.
But they didn't make any progress.
Wrangel threw the cavalry corps of General Barbovich, which the Whites called invincible, to storm the bridgehead. The "Black Baron" hoped for his experience in massive cavalry attacks.
This corps had great firepower: for every hundred, up to a dozen machine-gun carts and two trucks with machine guns.
He was given armored vehicles, tanks, and a squadron.
He aimed at the left flank of the Kakhov group, trying to break through to the crossings and eliminate the bridgehead.
At the same time, Slashchev's corps struck at the right flank.

On August 13, the White Guard general, having concentrated his forces, organized a ram attack.
He hoped that the Reds would falter when, bellowing menacingly and waving their sabers, horse lava rushed at them.

But the general miscalculated - the Reds did not flinch.
Parts of the 51st Infantry Division steadfastly met the enemy.
The White Guard cavalrymen desperately stormed the barbed wire and trenches. But they were met by aimed rifle and machine-gun fire from the defenders of the bridgehead.
Horse lava rolled back, leaving fallen people and horses in the steppe...

Recalling those days, Eideman wrote:

“We saw how Barbovich’s cavalry attacked the wire and trenches, how they ran in and how quickly her waves went back, scattering dark spots of dead horses and people across the steppe. We saw how Wrangel's strike force broke for the first time - Barbovich's cavalry corps, which until now had not known serious tests. The box has been retained. The bridgehead withstood the first offensive.

Holding the Kakhovka bridgehead, located 60-70 kilometers from Perekop, was of great importance.
The Red Army was able to strike at the flank and rear of the main grouping of Wrangel troops in Northern Tavria.
In addition, to prevent their association with the Polish interventionists in Ukraine.
And, finally, cut off their escape route to the Crimea.
The White Guard command was forced to hold an entire army corps against the bridgehead.
The creation of the Kakhovka bridgehead became one of the most important prerequisites for the defeat of Wrangel.

After failures in the battles for Kakhovka, General Slashchev-Krymsky submitted a letter of resignation.
He was replaced by General Witkovsky (commander of the Drozdov division).

On August 18, the Reds resumed their offensive on the front of the 2nd Corps - from Kakhovka to the east.
But this offensive failed.
As, by the way, was the offensive in the last days of August 1920, when the 2nd Cavalry Army managed to break into the rear of the Whites for several days.

The offensive of the Reds in the northern sector of the front, from Aleksandrovsk to Melitopol, against the 1st Corps, was carried out by the troops of the 2nd Cavalry Army, 1st, 3rd, 46th divisions.
The offensive began to develop successfully. And the Red cavalry went under Melitopol, threatening to completely encircle the two White corps.
But the Wrangelites were able to repel this offensive, despite their huge losses, when the regiments were melting down to the number of battalions ...

From mid-August 1920, Wrangel, having regrouped and brought his troops into battle order, reinforced by units that arrived from the Caucasus, began a new offensive on the right bank of the Dnieper and Donbass.

The main purpose of this operation was:
- the capture of the Right Bank and
- connection with the Polish army.

During the second half of August, the Wrangelites delivered sensitive blows to units of the 13th Army in the Berdyansk-Pologi-Bolshoi Tokmak-Orekhov area.
On August 19, they again captured Aleksandrovsk.
And then - the Sinelnikovo station, threatening Yekaterinoslav.

At the end of August 1920, Poland, having defeated the Bolsheviks on the Vistula, launched its second offensive against Kyiv.
Wrangel called on the Polish and Petliura armies to reach the Kyiv-Fastov-Uman line and jointly close the front. And he promised, in this case, to carry out an offensive on Elizavetgrad, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich the meeting of the allied armies was planned.
For better coordination of troops, Wrangel creates 2 armies based on 3 corps:
- 1st General Kutepov,
- 2nd General Abramov.
Wrangel's forces at the front by September had grown to 40,000 fighters (including 13,000 cavalry).

In the first week of September, Kutepov's 1st Army unsuccessfully tries to recapture the Kakhovka bridgehead.

And on September 12, Wrangel directed his main attack on the Alexander group of the enemy, which went on the offensive.

On September 13, the 2nd Army of General Abramov developed an offensive against the Donbass in the Pologi-Nogaysk sector.
Possessing superiority in forces, especially in cavalry, as a result of three days of fierce fighting, he inflicted a serious defeat on the 40th and 42nd divisions of the 13th army.
The bloodless red divisions withdrew to the east and northeast of the railway line Berdyansk - Pologi.

After this success, Wrangel ordered the commander of the 1st Army, General A.P. Kutepov:
- launch an offensive against the Orekhovskaya and Aleksandrovskaya groups of the 13th army and
- seize the crossing across the Dnieper in the area of ​​Aleksandrovsk.
- And then capture Yekaterinoslav.

Stubborn bloody battles unfolded in this area.
The White Guards advanced in the direction of Volnovakha and Sinelnikov.
Having defeated the Reds in bloody battles on September 15–23, the Wrangel troops broke into:
- Aleksandrovsk (September 19),
- Walk-Pole,
- Orekhov,
- to Sinelnikovo station (September 22).
They came close to the main center of the Dnieper region - Yekaterinoslav.
There, at that time, panic began and the evacuation of power structures ...

Wrangel's troops also occupied Nikopol and the Pokrovsky mines.
At the same time, the corps of the Wrangel General Badiev especially distinguished himself.

Meanwhile, on September 15, a naval battle of this war took place near the Obitochnaya Spit (north-western coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov).
The Soviet Azov military flotilla left Melitopol with the task of attacking the Wrangel flotilla.
At Berdyansk, near Obitochnaya Spit, the Red sailors under the command of the head of the detachment S. A. Khvitsky and Commissioner Ya. I. Ozolin, imperceptibly approaching the enemy, opened fire. The fight has begun.
The Red sailors managed to sink several Wrangel ships.
After that, White, taking advantage of the superiority in speed, disappeared.
The Soviet detachment returned to base on the morning of September 16.

By the end of September, parts of General Abramov occupied Berdyansk, Mariupol, Volnovakha.
They approached 17 kilometers to Yuzovka and 30 kilometers to Taganrog.

The resounding victories of the Wrangelites in September 1920 led to the disorganization and demoralization of the red units.
And the trophies of the whites were huge - up to 12 thousand prisoners, 40 guns, 6 armored trains.

In September 1920, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) recognized the elimination of the Wrangel Front as a priority.

The slogan was thrown:

"Everyone to fight Wrangel!"

On September 21, the Southern Front was created to fight Wrangel.
It was headed by M.V. Frunze, who showed himself excellently in the fight against Kolchak, in Turkestan, etc.
S. I. Gusev and the Hungarian communist Bela Kun became members of the Revolutionary Military Council.
The 6th Army under the command of A.I. Kork was additionally included in the front, and the 1st Cavalry Army was sent.

M. Frunze reported to Lenin:

“The spirit of the army is broken, there are talks of treason among the masses, there are no fresh reserves, the situation is aggravated by the disorganization of the rear. In Kharkov itself, I now do not have a single reliable unit. I feel myself with the headquarters of the front, surrounded by a hostile element.

By the end of September 1920, the Polish and Petliura troops were already near Kyiv and Vinnitsa.
And there were every opportunity to create a united front of Poland - Petliura and Wrangel.
Fearing this unification, Lenin insisted on a general counter-offensive of the Red Army as early as the twentieth of September 1920.
But Frunze, realizing the disastrous nature of an unprepared offensive, delayed its start until October 18-22, waiting for the arrival of fresh reserves (primarily the 1st Cavalry Army).

The fear of the Bolsheviks before the onset of Wrangel led to the fact that at the end of September 1920 the Makhnovists (the Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine named after Father Makhno) became allies of the Red Army.
This unexpected military alliance led to the fact that more than 15 thousand Makhnovist rebels (30% of all anti-Bolshevik rebels in Ukraine) stop fighting in the rear of the Red Army and head against the whites.
This phenomenal alliance of the Makhnovists was driven not only by a common hatred of the whites.
The Makhnovists sought:
- relax, get out of the state of daily battles,
- to stop the repressions against their movement,
- replenish their weapons at the expense of the Red Army,
- to conduct an "anarchist experiment" on the reclaimed territory,
- achieve freedom of anarchist propaganda...

The new Southern Front immediately had to repel the furious onslaught of the Wrangelites on Yekaterinoslav and the Donbass.

On October 3, the enemy occupied a large railway station and the town of Sinelnikovo.
To protect the region of Yekaterinoslav, Frunze formed a special group of troops under the command of Fedko.
And the situation on this sector of the front, in the end, was stabilized ...

Wrangel failed to develop success in the Mariupol direction.
On September 27, the 3rd Don Corps captured the Volnovakha railway junction.
And the next day - Mariupol.
Suffering heavy losses, the enemy reached Ilovaiskaya, creating a direct threat to the Donbass.
He didn't have the strength for more.
The advance was halted.

Having repelled the attacks of the Wrangelites, units of the Red Yuzovsky and Taganrog directions went on the counteroffensive.
The enemy began to roll back.
First - to the Ilovaiskaya station to Volnovakha.
And then to the area of ​​Pologi - Upper Tokmak.

Wrangel was forced to withdraw his battle-worn Don Corps to fortified positions east of Melitopol.

“The situation at the front over the past 5 days has changed dramatically for the better. The threat to Donbass can be considered eliminated.”

When planning a military campaign for October 1920, Wrangel took into account that the Reds were concentrating more and more divisions against the Russian army (partly removing them from the Polish front).

The purpose of the new offensive of the whites was:
- disruption of the concentration of red troops in the area of ​​​​Alexandrovsk - Kakhovka (to prevent the concentration of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies),
- access to the Right-bank Ukraine and
- liquidation of the Kakhovka bridgehead.

Before dawn on October 6, heavy white artillery fire began.
Under its cover, the 1st Army Corps and the Kuban White Cavalry Division under the overall command of General Kutepov crossed the Dnieper near the island of Khortitsa.
The Kuban and the infantry of the Kornilov and Markov divisions managed to push back the 3rd Rifle Division of the Reds (headed by A.D. Kozitsky).
They captured a foothold in the area of ​​the island of Khortytsya.
Under the blows of superior enemy forces, having lost more than half of the fighters, the remnants of the Reds retreated from the river.

On October 8, 1920, the Wrangel troops (with the forces of the 3rd division of the cavalry of General Barbovich and the cavalry of General Babiev - a total of 6 thousand bayonets and sabers) successfully crossed the Dnieper near Nikopol.
Wrangel launched an offensive operation, trying to defeat the Red group at Nikopol.

The Markov and Kornilov divisions also crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper in order to capture the railway network in order to prevent large masses of Reds from being transferred to Kakhovka.
Having established itself in the bend of the Dnieper, the Wrangel cavalry tried to enter the operational space to Krivoy Rog, Aleksandrovsk, in the rear of the Kakhovka bridgehead.

The Whites began a rapid advance in the western, and then south-western direction towards Nikopol.
They sought to encircle and destroy Mironov's 2nd Cavalry Army (6 thousand sabers).

Mironov ordered the commander of the 21st Lysenko and the 16th Volynsky to press the landing units of the enemy to the shore. And cut down as quickly as possible, so as not to give a foothold on the new frontier.
At the same time, he immediately transferred one of the brigades of the 1st Infantry Division to the left bank. By this, he made it clear to the enemy that he could be completely surrounded.
The Lysenko-Volynsky group managed to stop the advance of the enemy in a westerly direction. And then cut off his main forces from the Kichkas and Khortitsa crossings, causing complete confusion.
And Maslennikov's 3rd cavalry brigade even managed to utterly smash the enemy group near the Schoneberg colony.
So Mironov's cavalry successfully repulsed the flank attack of the troops of General Kutepov.

At dawn on October 9, a new strike group of whites, consisting of the 3rd army and cavalry corps under the overall command of General Dratsenko, crossed the Dnieper to the west, near Nikopol.

On the right bank of the Dnieper, the Wrangelites were met by:
- 2nd Cavalry Army Mironov (6 thousand sabers),
- 6th Army (17 thousand sabers and bayonets),
- Fedko's group from parts of the 30th division (4 thousand bayonets and sabers).

On October 8, the 13th Red Army (30 thousand bayonets, 7 thousand sabers) began to put pressure on the flanks of the Russian army.
She occupied Berdyansk, launching an offensive at Gulyai-Pole.
This forced Wrangel to transfer part of his forces to these areas.
The 5th cavalry division of the 13th army from near Berdyansk made a successful raid on the rear of the enemy, approaching Melitopol.

On October 13, Makhno brought 11-12 thousand sabers and bayonets to the Wrangel front, with 500 machine guns, 10 cannons.
And he occupied the front between the stations of Sinelnikovo and Chaplino.
At the call of Makhno from the army of Wrangel, they ran to him:
- rebel chieftains who are in the Russian army, and
- part of the peasants mobilized by Wrangel (only about 3 thousand fighters).

From October 9 to October 15, 1920, fierce battles unfolded on the Right Bank.
Wrangel strengthened the right-bank units near Aleksandrovsk, increased the strength of the blows.
The regiments of the 21st division, under the pressure of superior White forces, dispersed in the steppe in an absurd fan.
Blinovtsy and the 16th Volynsky simply bounced off the enemy and hesitated in anticipation of the approach of the reserves.
Not feeling their pressure, the enemy had already attacked Lysenko's division in its entirety, pushing towards Nikopol.
And General Babiyev also went there from the new crossings with the raid cavalry.
The 21st Lysenko rolled back to the west, bypassing Nikopol ...

On October 11, White strike groups managed to take the city of Nikopol.
And the whites set their sights on Apostolovo, in order to then with powerful blows knock over the Kakhovka bridgehead, which was sitting in their throat with a bone.
They rushed to the northwest ...

Frunze sent an order to Mironov:

“Despite any changes in the situation in the Apostolovo, Nikopol, Aleksandrovsk area, we cannot allow the defeat of the left flank of the 6th Army and its withdrawal from the line of the river. Dnieper, and in particular, from the Kakhovka bridgehead. The 2nd Cavalry must fulfill its task to the end, even at the cost of self-sacrifice.

Frunze, in a conversation over a direct wire with Mironov, emphasized that on him:

“There lies the most important task, on the speed and energy of the fulfillment of which the whole fate of the decisive operation depends. With a strong and energetic blow, everything that crossed should be crushed and destroyed.

Mironov creates a strike group under the command of division chief-1 Afonsky (from parts of the 1st Infantry Division, 21st Cavalry and 2nd Cavalry Brigades - Uritsky and Sablin).
And gives her orders:
- Go on a decisive offensive.
- And take control of the Podstepnoe and Tok stations.

Anatoly Znamensky we read:

“At dawn, along the entire line from Aleksandrovsk to Apostolovo, a counter cannonade thundered, heavy battles, attacks and breakthroughs resumed on both sides. The scales of success wavered ... Mironov was at the command post of the shock group with Afonsky, then he galloped along the front, accompanied by orderlies, commanded the cavalry.
By noon, the units of General Dratsenko trembled, hesitated ... From the side of the distant Chertomlyk station, frequent artillery fire was heard more and more insistently - two divisions were activated there, now united by the command of Gorodovikov. By evening, division commander Lysenko reported that he had knocked down six enemy cavalry regiments from positions, recaptured a battery, and ten heavy machine guns. The first rifle knocked out the enemy from the village of Sholokhovo in a heavy battle ... "

But soon everything changed...

A combined group of 3 white cavalry divisions under the command of General Babiyev fell upon Sholokhovo with a frenzied attack.
She drove out the 1st Rifle and 21st Cavalry Divisions.

At the same time, another grouping of Wrangel again struck at the junction of the 2nd Cavalry and 6th armies.
And pressed Sablin's Separate Cavalry Brigade and the 52nd Infantry Division.

Gathering the departing divisions into a fist, Mironov himself rushed to the 21st division.
He stopped the withdrawal of Foma Tekuchev's cavalry brigade in full career.
And then he himself led her into the wheelhouse ...

Artillery fire from both sides reached hurricane force.
The Wrangel cavalry was simply dumbfounded by the wild, half-mad attack of the Red Army soldiers who had just retreated.
She trembled and froze in indecision.
At this very time, the reserve brigade of Akinfiy Kharyutin attacked the reserve brigade of Akinfiy Kharyutin on the left flank with a wild howl.
They clashed with the whites in half a verst.
Mironov ordered to move the fire of the batteries, which hit direct fire, deep into the enemy's orders. Prevent their retreat, strike at the rear.
The commander of the White Guard cavalry, General Babiyev, was killed by a shell fragment.

At the same time, the Yekaterinoslav group of I.F. Fedko from units of the 30th division of the 13th army (4 thousand bayonets and sabers) attacked the Markov division in the Aleksandrovsk area.
She forced the Markovites to go on the defensive.
On October 12, the advance of the whites was stopped in all areas.
In vain, Dratsenko drove Barbovich's cavalry forward.
The Reds did not concede, the attacks of the Whites choked.
Having regrouped, units of the 2nd Cavalry Army, with the support of the 15th and 52nd divisions of the 6th Army and the Fedko group, delivered a powerful blow to the flank of the White 1st Army Corps.
It happened in the area of ​​the stations Sholokhovo, Tok, Tomakovka.
Increasing the strength of the strike, the 21st Cavalry Division liberated the Sholokhovo station.
Brigade commander V. Ya. Kachalov showed special valor in this battle.
The 2nd cavalry division under the command of I. A. Rozhkov also performed well, having managed to make a turning point in the fighting.
In the oncoming battle that unfolded on October 13, the Soviet cavalry dismembered Barbovich's corps and went to the Dnieper.
The whites, fearing encirclement, left Nikopol and rushed to the river.

The Revolutionary Military Council of the 2nd Cavalry Army reported to the front command:

“The right bank of the Dnieper and the Kakhovka bridgehead have been saved. Barbovich's cavalry corps, supported by the 6th and 7th infantry divisions, was defeated. After a seven-hour stubborn battle, the enemy fled in disarray to the crossing near the village of Babino, pursued by the red cavalry ... The Smolensk and Alekseevsky infantry regiments were completely destroyed, many prisoners.

At this time, Fedko's group defeated the Markov division and made its way to the shore on its shoulders.

Wrangel in his memoirs described this day as follows:

“Confusion has seized the regiments. Parts at a trot began to retreat to the crossings. The emboldened enemy went on the offensive. Confusion in the ranks of the frustrated cavalry increased. It was impossible to restore order. Everyone rushed to the crossings. On the narrow forest roads, in the floodplains, the retreating cavalry and infantry units mixed up ... Shocked by everything he saw, the confused General Dratsenko ordered the withdrawal of the entire army to the right bank of the Dnieper.

Thus, on October 12-14, in the fierce battles on the Right Bank, which went down in the history of the Civil War as the battle of Nikopol-Alexander, the regiments of the 2nd Cavalry Army defeated the cavalry corps of the white generals Babiev and Barbovich. And they thwarted the intentions of the Whites to unite with the Poles on the right bank of the Dnieper.
During these battles, the Wrangelites, for the first time in the campaign of the summer - autumn of 1920, began to experience a drop in morale, confusion, panic ...

At the same time, Wrangel suffered heavy losses, trying at any cost to recapture the Kakhovka bridgehead with a new frontal assault on Kakhovka.

October 14, barely dawn, Baron Wrangel waved his glove in front of his army:
- Forward! God with us!
Parts of the 2nd Army Corps of General V.K. Vitkovsky, supported by 12 tanks, 14 armored vehicles and 80 guns, attacked the battle formations of the bridgehead defenders.
The attack was preceded by a 2-hour artillery preparation.
Heavy shells swept away the barbed wire, plowed up part of the trenches of the 1st line, but could not hit the strongholds of the defense.
When the ground reared up by the explosions subsided, the Red Army soldiers saw the steel masses crawling onto the trenches. They were 10 meters long and over 2 meters high. Each tank was armed with 2 guns and 5 machine guns.
By order of Blucher, the defenders of the outer line of defense let the tanks through.
And then the infantry was cut off by powerful rifle and machine-gun fire.
The Whites managed to break through the barbed wire and come close to the trenches.
But at this time, the red flamethrowers brought down a shower of fire on the enemy.
Bright torches flared up in place of 2 tanks.
2 more tanks were hit by shells from guns.
But 10 formidable machines broke through the main line of defense.

The military commissar of the 459th regiment K.F. Telegin wrote about the fight against tanks that had broken through:

“Our fighters were beyond praise. They threw grenades at the tanks, climbed on the armor, fired at the embrasures. Not helped the enemy and two dozen airplanes, black crows circling over our positions.

White infantrymen and Cossacks rushed after the tanks.
They were met by red machine gunners.
The squadron of whites galloped back when flamethrowers blazed at it in a golden stream.
The white infantry took hand-to-hand combat.
Cursing the counter, the red fighters stabbed with a bayonet, beat the whites with butts and fell themselves - bloody, mutilated ...
The stunned enemy retreated.
Attacks followed one after another. But, having retreated beyond the second line of defense, the division held firm.
Until the evening, the battle went on with varying success, but no one wanted to give in ...

At dawn on October 15, fighting resumed along the entire front line.
The 5th Kuban Cavalry Division under the command of Ya. F. Balakhonov provided considerable assistance to the troops of the front these days.
On the night of October 14, she secretly passed through the front line in the Berdyansk region and moved along the rear of the 3rd Don White Corps, destroying enemy warehouses, supply bases and garrisons.
The division successfully attacked Bolshoi Tokmak, almost capturing the Don ataman Bogaevsky.

Against the red horsemen of Balakhonov, Wrangel was forced to abandon the 1st and 2nd Don Cavalry Divisions.

Eventually. The Zadneprovskaya operation of Wrangel ended in complete failure.
The offensive of the Wrangel troops on the right bank of the Dnieper against the 6th and 2nd Cavalry armies ended in their complete defeat.
Crushed by swift blows from the front and flanks, the whites, pursued on their heels, rolled along the narrow roads in the floodplains to the crossings.
On October 18, 1920, the Red troops captured Nikopol.

The forces of the opponents by this time were already too unequal.

In the first half of October 1920, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army consisted of:
- 140 thousand bayonets and sabers,
- 500 guns,
- 17 armored trains,
- 31 armored cars and
- 29 aircraft.

The Wrangelites could only count on:
- 37 thousand soldiers,
- 213 guns,
- 6 armored trains,
- 20 armored cars,
- 25 tanks and
- 42 aircraft.
In total, the Russian army, taking into account spare and rear units, amounted to 58 thousand fighters with 260 guns.

Moreover, the Wrangel troops acted alone against such a red colossus.
Indeed, in the twentieth of October, a truce was concluded between the Soviet and Polish troops.
The Petliurists were also forced to join him.

But, despite such a balance of power, the headquarters of the White Guards at first did not plan to withdraw troops to the Crimean peninsula.
And he was even going to give a decisive battle to the Reds in the steppes of Northern Tavria.
Such a bold decision was dictated not so much by strategic calculations as by the international conjuncture.
After all, departure to the Crimea:
- could lead to France's refusal to provide assistance to the Russian army and
- put an end to the possibility of the transition of Russian units from Poland through Ukraine.
Wrangel estimated the total forces of the Reds and the Makhnovists at 100 thousand fighters, believing that the Russian army would be able to repel such a number of attackers.
This error in the calculations affected the further course of the operation ...

Frunze's plan to liquidate the Wrangel group was simple: the main task was to cut off its path for retreat to the Crimea.

The Western group dealt the main blow.
The 6th Army of A.V. Kork and the 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny were to strike from the Kakhovka region in the direction of the isthmuses and Sivash in order to cut off the enemy in Northern Tavria and capture Perekop and Chongar.
The task was assigned to the Western group - to pincer, cut off from the Crimea and destroy the Russian army and, if possible, break into the Crimea.
- The northern group (the 4th army of V.S. Lazarevich and the 2nd Cavalry army of F.K. Mironov), with a blow from Nikopol to the south, to Chongar, was supposed to dismember the elite forces of the enemy.
Then surround the Markov, Drozdov and Kornilov divisions, and go to the Crimea through the Chongar Isthmus.
- An auxiliary strike was delivered by the Eastern Group, consisting of units of the 13th Army.
She was supposed to capture Tokmak and Melitopol with two parallel blows.
The common main task was to prevent the Russian army from entering the Crimean fortifications.

Bloody battles continued from 20 to 31 October 1920.
Opponents had to fight in conditions of early onset frosts, reaching 15 degrees.
Both armies, which entered the campaign in the summer, were not ready for such a sharp change in climate. Many soldiers did not have overcoats, the number of frostbite grew.
However, bloody battles did not stop at the front for a day ...

The main battle of the campaign was started by the Wrangels.

On October 20, they tried to launch an offensive against Pavlograd.
But they got stuck on the outskirts of the city in battles against the Makhnovists and the 42nd division.
And already on October 23, the Makhnovists and units of the 4th Army, having overturned the northern grouping of the Russian Army, broke into Aleksandrovsk.

On October 24, in a snowstorm and frost (minus 12 degrees), the Makhnovists launched a raid on the rear of the Russian army to Melitopol.
But, having broken through to Bolshoi Tokmak, Makhno turned sharply to the northeast to the front line and struck at Gulyai-Pole (which did not correspond to the order received).
Two days of fighting for Gulyai-Pole bled the Makhnovist group.
And Makhno’s failure to comply with the order almost disrupted the general plan ...

On October 26, the 2nd Cavalry Army crossed the Dnieper at Nikopol, occupying two bridgeheads for a future offensive.

October 28 - November 3, 1920, the famous operation was carried out in Northern Tavria.
The goal is to destroy the main enemy forces and break into the Crimea on the shoulders of the retreating White Guards.
A general counter-offensive of the Red Army began on a front of 350 kilometers.

The counteroffensive took place in severe (unusual for these places) frost.
The blizzard hid the advance of the troops.

The soldiers of the Russian army in the trenches, without warm clothes, wrapped themselves in rags, left their positions in the rear villages.
The frost caused both the decline in the spirit of the white troops and the frostbite of hundreds of fighters on the front line.
In addition, by October 1920, after endless battles for Northern Tavria, the composition of the Russian army had changed. The army was noticeably weakened.
Regular front-line officers and Cossacks were partially knocked out of action. And in their place, captured Red Army soldiers and mobilized peasants were sent - far from reliable "combat material".
However, bloody battles did not stop at the front for a day ...

In the first days of the counteroffensive, the Western Group of Soviet Forces achieved the greatest success.
The troops of the 6th Army under the command of A.I. Kork defeated the 2nd Army Corps of General Witkovsky.
By the end of the day on October 29, they reached Perekop.
And they captured the town of Perekop.
And they broke through to the rear of the 1st Army of General Kutepov.
But the Red Army soldiers could not immediately take the fortifications of the Turkish Perekop Wall.

On the same day, General Wrangel issued:

"ORDER
Ruler of the South of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army.
Sevastopol, October 29, 1920.
Russian people. Left alone in the fight against the rapists, the Russian army is waging an unequal battle, defending the last piece of Russian land where law and truth exist.
In the consciousness of the responsibility lying on me, I am obliged to foresee all accidents in advance.
By my order, the evacuation and boarding of ships in the ports of the Crimea has already begun for all those who shared the path of the cross with the army, the families of military personnel, officials of the civil department, with their families, and individuals who could be in danger in the event of the arrival of the enemy.
The army will cover the landing, bearing in mind that the ships necessary for its evacuation are also in full readiness in the ports, according to the established schedule. To fulfill the duty to the army and the population, everything has been done within the limits of human strength.
Our further paths are full of uncertainty.
We have no other land except Crimea. There is no state treasury. Frankly, as always, I warn everyone of what awaits them.
May the Lord send strength and wisdom to all to overcome and survive the Russian hard times.

Parts of the 1st Cavalry Army managed to go to the rear of the Whites and reach right up to Chongar.
They sought to completely cut off the Russian army.

The marching Crimean group of Makhno (5 thousand sabers and bayonets, 30 guns, 450 machine guns), deepening behind enemy lines, managed to capture Melitopol (October 30).

The 51st division of Blucher approached the Turkish Wall itself.
Crimea was already beginning behind him.
Parts of this division tried to seize the Turkish Wall on the move.
But it was not there. Under hurricane artillery and machine-gun fire, they were forced to lay low.

On the morning of October 30, the battle for the Perekop positions resumed with renewed vigor.
But to take them and this time failed.
Having overcome 3 rows of wire barriers of the rampart, having risen in separate sections to the crest of the Turkish rampart, the fighters of the division were driven back by the Wrangel counterattack ...

Having suffered heavy losses, the Reds were forced to withdraw.

White resistance was desperate.
Therefore, the offensive of the Northern and Eastern groups of the Red Army was suspended.

The Don and Kuban Cossacks were able to severely beat the 2nd Cavalry Army.
But, despite this, the 2nd Cavalry under the command of F.K. Mironov, in cooperation with the 52nd Infantry Division of M.Ya. Germanovich, slowly but surely moved forward for two days, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy.
On November 2, in the morning, regiments of the 16th Cavalry Division attacked the village of Rozhdestvenskoye from the north.
Kutepov began to retreat to Salkovo, but was hit by the 21st division.
A fierce battle broke out.
The Whites withdrew under the cover of armored cars. But, as soon as they left the road, they got stuck in the mud and lost their mobility.
The machine-gun carts of the Mironovites pierced the defense.
And from their unexpected raid, the Wrangelites crumbled.
By evening, the vanguard units of the 2nd Cavalry Army broke into Novo-Alekseevka, pursuing and cutting down the fleeing White Guards.

The troops of the 4th Army under the command of V.S. Lazarevich and the 13th (commander I.P. Uborevich) also fought fierce battles with the Wrangelites, trying to prevent them from reaching the Chongar Isthmus.
The enemy retreated in relative order.
He retreated, stubbornly clinging to each line and inflicting short counterattacks with the forces of the rearguard units of the 3rd Army Corps.

It should be noted that the 4th and 13th armies did not fully use the possibility of flank coverage of the main forces of the 2nd army of General Abramov to the west and northwest of Melitopol.
That is why they allowed the White 3rd Army and Don Corps to slip out of the loosely tightened bag.
The mobilized inhabitants of the Crimea and detachments of volunteers stopped the advance of the Reds at Perekop.

Parts of the 1st Cavalry Army, introduced into battle on October 29, managed to reach the deep rear of the White Guards.
Two of its divisions (6th and 11th Cavalry O. I. Gorodovikova and F. M. Morozov) operated in the Agaiman area.
The third (14th cavalry A. Ya. Parkhomenko) - at Rozhdestvensky.
The fourth (4th Cavalry S. K. Timoshenko) - to the south, on the Black Sea coast.
It seemed that favorable conditions were created for the encirclement and defeat of the Wrangelites in Northern Tavria.

“The escape routes to Perekop are cut off, and the enemy is left with one road to Salkovo. I believe that the fate of the battle north of the necks can be considered already decided in our favor. I have given orders to fulfill the second, and last, task of the front - the mastery of the Crimean peninsula.

Wrangel, trying to avoid encirclement in Northern Tavria, took advantage of the remaining open road to Salkovo.
And he began to concentrate cavalry units, Drozdov, Markov and Kornilov infantry divisions in the Agaiman area.
To cut the road to Salkovo, the 4th cavalry division of S. K. Timoshenko is sent there.
She managed to take Genichesk.
However, due to lack of strength, she was unable to withstand the onslaught of a superior enemy.

On October 30, the path to the Crimea through Chongar was opened for the 1st Cavalry Army.
At such a critical moment, Wrangel gathers all the Crimeans capable of carrying weapons: the cadets, the artillery school, his personal escort.
And throws these forces to cover Chongar.

The slowdown in the offensive of the Northern and Eastern groups of the Reds made it possible for Wrangel to regroup his units and break through to the Crimea with the whole army.

And although Frunze ordered Budyonny to gather all his forces and not let the Wrangel troops into the Crimea, the 1st Cavalry itself was taken by surprise and was on the verge of complete defeat.

On October 30 and 31, the retreating units of the Russian Army pushed back units of the 1st Cavalry from the Chongar Isthmus with a blow from the north.
And they surrounded the cavalry of Budyonny near Salkovo - Genichesk, pressing the red horsemen to Sivash.
More recently, the victorious 1st Cavalry itself suddenly found itself under the threat of encirclement.

On October 30-31, the corps of the Russian army made their way through the defenses of the 1st Cavalry and defeated it in parts.

Within two days, the 6th, 11th and 14th cavalry divisions of the Reds were defeated by the cavalry of General Barbovich.
Through the gaps formed, the Russian Army on November 1 and 2, 1920 was able to freely leave Northern Tavria for the Crimea ...

Only on November 3, the gap on Chongar was slammed shut by red units.
This was done by the 4th, 1st Cavalry and 2nd Cavalry armies.
On the same day, the Reds attacked the defense of the Wrangels near Sivash.
And on the shoulders of the retreating, breaking through the front, broke into Chongar.
But the attempt of the 6th Cavalry Division of O.I. Gorodovikov and the 30th Infantry Division of I.K. Gryaznov to break into the peninsula through the Sivashsky and Chongarsky bridges failed.
This breakthrough of the Reds was repulsed.
And the Wrangelites blew up behind them all the bridges to the Crimea ...

“On the Sivash Isthmus, we were not on the shoulders of the enemy, but at some distance from him. Be that as it may, by all means continue your attempt to break into the Crimea, otherwise it will be very annoying ... "

People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Leon Trotsky tore and threw.

Angry telegrams were sent one after another to the commander of the Southern Front, Mikhail Frunze, and the commanders of the armies and military groups, demanding:

"Take the Crimea at all costs before the onset of winter, regardless of any victims."

Frunze's plan to eliminate the Russian army was not implemented.
Wrangel did not allow the Bolsheviks to destroy their army.
But at the same time, nevertheless, he lost all of Northern Tavria.
In addition, during the week of fighting, the forces of the White Guards were halved due to the dead, wounded, prisoners (about 20 thousand), and frostbite.
Soviet troops also captured over 100 guns, many machine guns, large stocks of cartridges and shells, enemy carts, many horses, 100 steam locomotives, 2000 wagons and other trophies.

The losses of the whites were great, but the remnants of their troops through the Chongar and the Arbat arrow broke into the Crimea.
Behind the first-class Perekop and Chongar fortifications, built with the help of French and British engineers, the Wrangelites hoped to spend the winter, and in the spring of 1921 continue the fight.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) gave the military command a directive to take the Crimea at any cost before the onset of winter.

On November 3, a tense silence was established along the entire front line on the outskirts of the Crimea.
The showdown is approaching.
- or the Crimea will be taken now by the Reds, which will mean the victory of Soviet Russia in the Civil War;
- or Wrangel will remain to spend the winter in the Crimea, he will get the time he needs to respite and strengthen, then - who knows ...

For several days, the troops of the Red Army concentrated on the strike directions, and artillery was brought up.
An offensive was being prepared.

“Let's lay down with bones, and we'll shove Wrangel into the sea,” the fighters said at the rallies.

The elated mood of the troops was well conveyed by the words of V. I. Lebedev-Kumach's song, popular in those days:

In vain, Wrangel, you argue
With a red rifle
We bathe in the Black Sea,
Let's head down.

The White Army was preparing for the defense, which turned out to be the last.
Despite heavy losses, parts of the Whites still retained their combat capability.
Using the advantages of defense, Wrangel hoped to wear down the Soviet troops and prevent their breakthrough into the Crimea.
And there was something to count on: in order to get into the Crimea, the Red Army had to break through powerful fortifications. Buildings called by contemporaries of the events "White Verdun".
On the eve of the assault, Wrangel had 25-28 thousand soldiers and officers.
And the number of the Red Army on the Southern Front was already about 100 thousand people.

The Perekop and Chongar isthmuses and the southern coast of the Sivash connecting them represented a common network of fortified positions reinforced by natural and artificial obstacles.

The Turkish rampart at Perekop stretched across the entire isthmus from the Sivash to the Karkinit Gulf.
It reached a length of 11 kilometers, a height of 10 meters.
The width at the base exceeded 15 meters.
The slope of the shaft is steep, in some places sheer.
A ditch 10 meters deep and over 30 meters wide was dug in front of the rampart. Dozens of large land mines were laid at the bottom of the ditch.
In addition, in addition, 4 rows of mined wire fences were laid.
And along the top of the Turkish Wall there was a line of deep trenches. Artillery platforms and machine-gun nests, concrete dugouts, communication passages were built.

The shaft was defended mainly by officers of the best Drozdov division in the Wrangel army.
They had about 70 guns and 150 machine guns at their disposal.
They could conduct not only direct, but also cross fire, and this greatly increased its power.
The area in front of the rampart was completely open, flat.

Behind these fortifications, 20-25 kilometers away, a second, so-called Ishun (Yushun) fortification zone was created between the chain of lakes.
She rested her flanks on numerous lakes and bays.
It included 6 lines of trenches with communication passages, concrete machine-gun nests and shelters, thick wire fences.
These positions were covered by the Kornilov and Markov divisions.
From the side of the Black Sea, the White Guards were supported by warships with fire.

No less firmly than the Perekop Isthmus, the Chongar Peninsula and the Arabat Spit were fortified.
Narrow dams for railways and highways stretched from the Chongar Peninsula to the northern coast of Crimea through the Sivash.
Bridges were blown up.
And on the Crimean coast, the White Guards built 6 lines of fortifications.
They were protected by several rows of barbed wire. Their machine guns and guns were aimed at the dams. A lot of artillery was concentrated here, including long-range fortress guns delivered from Sevastopol, and almost all armored trains.
The defense here was held by units of the 3rd Don Corps and a group of General Kantserov.

French and British specialists, who were strengthening the Turkish Wall, the Lithuanian Peninsula, Ishun and the Chongar region, considered the Crimea impregnable.
Breaking through such a defense was very difficult.
Wrangel, who examined the positions, said that a new Verdun would take place here.

Frunze insisted on an early assault on the Crimean isthmuses, while the enemy had not yet had time to dig in and regroup.

Frunze's original plan to hit the Chongar fortifications fell through.
And he broke because of the early formation of ice on the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov.
This ice bound the Soviet Azov flotilla in Taganrog. And he did not let her support the operation with her fire.

The strike by units of the 1st Cavalry from Genichesk, through the Arabat arrow to Feodosia, was stopped by the fire of the Wrangel fleet, part of which approached Genichesk.

As a result, the Soviet command adopted a new plan:
- deliver the main blow through Perekop-Sivash (parts of the 6th Army, the Makhno Army, the 2nd Cavalry Army),
- and on Chongar and Arabat to carry out a demonstration, auxiliary strike (by the forces of the 4th Army and the 3rd Cavalry Corps).

The Reds began the operation to capture the Crimea already on November 3, 1920 with another unsuccessful frontal attack on the Perekop fortifications.
Against 19.5 thousand Wrangel troops then came out 133 thousand Reds and 5 thousand Makhnovists.
On the main directions, the difference between the defenders and the attackers reached a ratio of 1: 12.

The Don Corps of Wrangel (3 thousand soldiers) occupied the defenses of Chongar.
And Kutepov's corps (6 thousand bayonets) was sent to protect Perekop.
Barbovich's cavalry corps (4 thousand sabers) was in the reserve of the Perekop defense, another 13 thousand bayonets and sabers were in the front reserve.
The defense of the Crimea was led by General Kutepov.
The 1st defensive line of the Whites was located on the Turkish Wall (only 3300 people defended the shaft).
The 2nd defensive line (20 km from the Turkish Wall) ran at the Ishun station.
The left flank was supported by the artillery of the fleet, the flanks of the defense rested against water barriers.

By that time, the development of the operational plan for the Perekop-Chongar operation had been completed at the headquarters of the Southern Front.
Her intention was:
- Simultaneous strike of the main forces of the 6th Army (A.I. Kork) through the fords of Lake Sivash (7 km) and the Lithuanian Peninsula in cooperation with the frontal offensive of the 51st Division (V.K. Blucher) on the Turkish Wall to break through the first line of defense enemy in the Perekop direction.
- An auxiliary strike was planned in the Chongar direction by the forces of the 4th Army (V.S. Lazarevich).
- In the future, it was supposed to defeat the enemy on the Ishun positions on the move.
- Then, by introducing mobile groups of the front into the breakthrough (1st and 2nd Cavalry armies of S. M. Budyonny and F. K. Mironov, the Makhnov detachment and the 3rd cavalry corps of N. D. Kashirin of the 4th army) to pursue the retreating enemy , preventing his evacuation from the Crimea.

On November 5, on the day Frunze planned to land across the Sivash, the east wind brought water from the sea to the Sivash.
At the fords, the water rose to 2 meters.
The Makhnovists, who were the first to be ordered to start crossing, flatly refused to advance ahead of the landing.
And the crossing of the Sivash was postponed until a new shallowing of the fords.

But already on November 6, the wind changed.
And in a day, the western wind drove almost all the water out of the Sivash.
The strong shallowing of the Sivash made it possible to walk along the fords, along a completely open bottom, along frozen mud.
A heavy fog created an ideal opportunity to camouflage the landing.

The Red warriors solemnly celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the October Revolution and vowed to put an end to Wrangel.

They remembered:

After us, after all, children without eyes, without legs,
Children of great trouble.
Behind us are cities - on the wreckage of roads,
Where there is no bread, no fire, no water.
(N. Tikhonov, Perekop)

As soon as it got dark, along the fords across the Sivash (“Rotten Sea”), with the help of local guides (peasant I.I. Olenchuk and shepherd Tkachenko), they moved:
- 52nd Infantry Division Germanovich and
- 15th Inzenskaya I. I. Raudmetz.
They were followed by:
- parts of the 153rd Infantry Division and
- cavalry brigade of the 51st Infantry Division.
The total number of troops reached 20 thousand people.
The Red Army soldiers made an almost impossible transition.
Just imagine!
About 12 kilometers through icy slurry (at 12 degrees below zero!), Sucking up to the waist in places. Carrying supplies and weapons, stumbling into water holes in the dark without saying a word.
Hands stiffened in the bitter cold, wet clothes froze over.
Each step of the long journey was given with great difficulty.
Sometimes fighters who had strayed aside fell into a quagmire and drowned. And they died in silence.
Finally, at 2 am, the shore appeared.
The Red Army soldiers reached the base of the northern part of the Lithuanian Peninsula.
The wire was cut with scissors, chopped with axes, and covered with straw mats.
After that, the assault column of the communists began the battle.
And immediately the searchlights of the White Guards illuminated Sivash.
The artillery and machine guns of the enemy began to speak.

"The enemy's Perekop artillery turned part of its guns to the Lithuanian Peninsula and opened such fire that the mud raised from the bottom of the Sivash flew up in huge pillars."

Throwing up hundreds of fountains of water and mud, artillery shells covered the fighters. White machine guns fired incessantly.
The dead fell into the mud.
The wounded got up and went forward.

Eyewitnesses said:

“As soon as a small group of fighters appeared on the dam, enemy armored trains swept everyone into the water of the Sivash.”
"A continuous stream of machine-gun fire, a continuous flurry of artillery fire from heavy guns swept row after row of the attacking chains of the Red Army."

One of the regiments lost 90% in killed and wounded.

The poet N. S. Tikhonov described the feat of the Red Army as follows:

Sivash is bridged with living bridges!
But the dead before they fall
Taking a step forward...

Despite the losses, the attackers, after a fierce battle, knocked out the Cossacks of the Kuban brigade of General Fostikov from the first trench.

And then, despite desperate resistance, the Kuban left the second line of trenches.
The Reds established themselves on the Lithuanian peninsula.
A threat hung over the rear of the Perekop fortifications of the Wrangelites ...

With desperate contracts, the Whites tried to stop the advance of the Red Army troops.
The white fire intensified. Heavy shells plowed the ground, preventing them from raising their heads. Everything was mixed with blood, mud, smoke - it seemed as if the sky had opened up above people's heads. The paramedics did not have time to help the wounded. The bandaged were taken out under the cliff, where on a narrow shallow they were laid on straw in anticipation of ambulances.
Several times White launched counterattacks, but every time they rolled back...

Exposing the rear and desperately risking, Wrangel was pulling more and more new forces from the reserve to the place of the breakthrough, hoping to throw the Reds from the bridgehead and close the gap.
The fighters fought with butts, stabbed with bayonets, rushed hand to hand. But gradually their strength dried up. The ammunition was running out.
The officer regiments fought furiously and, with the support of armored cars, began to gradually push the landing back to Sivash.

The red units on the Lithuanian peninsula were threatened with complete destruction due to the fact that the water in Sivash again began to arrive and threatened to completely cut off the landing force from the supply bases and reinforcements.

Even having lost the Lithuanian peninsula, Wrangel believed that not everything was lost.
The Drozdov division from Armyansk and the Markov division from Ishun tried to isolate and defeat the red landing on the Lithuanian peninsula.
But during the day the battle for the peninsula did not bring results ...

At the same time, on the morning of November 8, the 51st division was thrown to storm the fortifications on the Perekop isthmus.
After a 4-hour artillery preparation of part of the division, with the support of armored vehicles, they began a head-on assault on the Turkish Wall.

The first assault wave, met by artillery and machine-gun fire from the shaft, could not overcome the barbed wire.
Almost all the Red Army soldiers perished in front of the wire ...

The fighters of the second assault wave, supported by 15 armored vehicles, overcame the first line of obstacles.
But a new lane bristled ahead with stakes.
White's fire did not weaken.

Before dark, the second attack of the Turkish Wall began.
Under a shower of lead, the assault battalions moved forward span by span, suffering heavy losses.
The Reds captured part of the second barrier strip. But it was captured at a very high price - almost all the fighters remained lying on the battlefield.
The situation was heating up...

In the Chongar direction, preparations were still underway for forcing the Sivash.
The offensive of the 9th Infantry Division along the Arabat Spit was stopped by fire from the ships.
At this time, Sivash began to replenish with water, the enemy went on the offensive.

And so, at that time, communication with the Red units on the Lithuanian peninsula was cut off.
Pressed by the Whites to the already flooded Sivash and unable to call for reinforcements due to damage to the telephone wire, the Reds on the Lithuanian Peninsula found themselves in a critical situation.
Signalers have established that the unusually salty water of the Sivash disables the cable.
What to do?
Raise the cable above the water.
What funds are needed for this?
We need six. But they are not at hand, and time does not wait. It remains to keep the cable on yourself.
And the signalmen voluntarily made a choice.
This is what one of the fighters saw then, going through the Sivash.
Instead of telephone poles along the entire ford, under the violent blows of the wind, waist-deep in icy water in a 10-degree frost, ragged, stiff Red Army soldiers stood and held a cable on their shoulders.

“In order to win the divisions cut off on the dead peninsula, ordinary people, inspired by a great feeling of love for the Motherland, ready to give their lives for it, embarked on a difficult, unthinkable post.”

And the news went by wire to the Lithuanian peninsula, giving new strength to the red soldiers.

Frunze ordered the cavalry (the 7th Cavalry Division of N. I. Sabelnikov, the 16th Cavalry Division of the 2nd Cavalry Army of S. B. Volynsky and the cavalry detachment of the Insurgent Army of Makhno under the command of S. Karetnikov) to immediately cross to the Lithuanian Peninsula.
The cavalry helped push the enemy back.
The Soviet command called on the population of the nearest villages to strengthen the fords on the Sivash.

The eyewitness said:

“About ten minutes later, the whole Stroganovka buzzed, got excited. The horses were hastily harnessed. Shovels, crowbars, stakes, boards were thrown into the wagons. The carts rushed to the square, and from there the train went to Sivash.

In Stroganovka, Frunze listened to the message on the phone:

“The third decisive attack of the Turkish Wall was repulsed. Some parts of the division lay down entirely. Now the fighters are preparing for a new attack ... The fire from the enemy, like a hurricane, sweeps away everything.

Frunze ordered:

“The Sivash is flooded with water, our units on the Lithuanian peninsula can be cut off. Attack and capture the rampart at all costs."

Soldiers of the 51st division rushed to the assault.
It was the next (fourth in a row) frontal attack of the Turkish shaft.

E. G. Butusov, a participant in the battles, recalled this assault:

“The ten-kilometer shaft is an impressive structure that has survived from the distant times of the Middle Ages. The Wrangelites strongly fortified it. Already several times we went on the attack, but they fought off the fierce fire of the whites. Despite the heavy losses, the mood of our fighters was cheerful, everyone had one desire - you give Crimea! Death to Wrangel!
Our artillery again and again processes the fortifications of the enemy. We repeat attacks, groping for a weak spot in the enemy's defense. The barbed wire gets in the way. The Wrangelites send dense machine-gun bursts towards the red fighters. We cling to the ground. Overhead, sowing death, shells burst. There is nothing to breathe from smoke and dust. Terrible thirst. I would rather take possession of this damned rampart, go out into the open, defeat the enemy.
Again we rise to the assault. We take off our overcoats, padded jackets and throw them on the wire. We jump over the barriers, we rush forward. We grab hold of the crevices of the slope, crawl, make our way through the gaps, break down, cling again, but stubbornly climb higher and higher. So we got hooked ... There are already a lot of us at the top. It came to hand-to-hand combat. And well, the shaft has been overcome! Thundering powerful "hooray-ra-a!"
The whites cannot withstand the swift bayonet strike and take flight.

On the night of November 8-9, the shock groups of the Red Army broke through to the top of the rampart and suppressed enemy firing points with grenades.
Part of the assaulting infantry managed to bypass the Turkish Wall near the coast, along the bay and hit from the rear.

From the memoirs of a participant in the 4th assault on the Turkish Wall:

“We have reached the barbed wire. Pushing through them with our bodies, tearing our arms and legs into blood, tearing our greatcoats and boots, we found ourselves at the bottom of the ditch, out of the reach of the enemy's searchlights and machine guns. Further on rose the menacing, sheer walls of the rampart lined with bricks. There was no way to climb the rampart here... To retreat would mean to cover oneself with indelible shame. Slowly and carefully, we moved towards the bay - after all, hand grenades dropped from the rampart would tear us to shreds. Ice water reaches the waist. But we bypassed the barbed wire - they stretched into the sea for half a kilometer. Here it is, the bank in the rear of the rampart. Both tiredness and cold are immediately forgotten. With a loud "hurrah" we rush to the rear of the Wrangel fortifications.

The enemy hastily retreated.

The order to award the 456th Infantry Regiment with the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner stated:

“With incredible efforts, overcoming difficulties in advancing on Perekop, under deadly enemy fire and, despite the presence of several lines of barbed wire, the regiment, faithful to revolutionary duty and, showing miracles of courage, broke the enemy’s resistance with a friendly blow, captured the Perekop rampart and forced the enemy to retreat to Armenian".

Meanwhile, the Soviet troops advancing on the Lithuanian peninsula intensified the onslaught.
The nerves of the defenders of the Turkish Wall broke down when they learned that the Reds were in their immediate rear.

And on the night of November 8-9, the Wrangel troops stopped the defense on the Turkish Wall.
They moved to the 2nd line of defense - to the well-fortified Ishun positions, reinforced with the help of the fleet.

By the morning of November 9, detachments sent to reinforce the 15th and 52nd rifle divisions reached the Lithuanian peninsula.
They strengthened the unfolding offensive in the area between Sivash and Krasnoe Lake, in the direction of Karpova Balka.
In the afternoon, the 51st Rifle Division, pursuing the enemy from the very Turkish Wall, reached the Ishun positions and entered the battle.
However, an attempt to break through the fortifications from a raid was repulsed by the Whites ...

The strongest part of the defense of Ishuni was the eastern part.
Up to 6 thousand Wrangelites concentrated there.
The western sector of defense (from Karpova Balka to Karkinitsky Bay) had only 3 thousand bayonets.
But on the other hand, he was supported by the fleet, which urgently arrived in the region of the Perekop Isthmus.

On November 10, the command of the 6th Red Army planned to develop its main attack with the forces of the 15th and 52nd divisions, given the heavy losses suffered by the 51st division.

However, on the private initiative of the chiefs of the latter, from the very morning, without waiting for the units of the 52nd division to approach their sector, they began to break through the enemy’s fortifications.
As a participant in the assault wrote, the Red Army men fiercely threw themselves at the wire - they blew it up with grenades, cut it, knocked it off the stakes with butts, twisted the stakes. Ripping off the skin, tearing the overcoat to shreds, they crawled under the wire and attacked the second row of wire, the third ...
They were met by a fiery flurry, thousands of weapons of death from land and sea, all at once whistled, howled, rumbled.
20 ships of the Entente and Wrangel fired on the red units.
By evening, despite significant losses, the Reds managed to capture two lines of fortifications.

As it turned out later, this initiative turned out to be very useful for the Reds, since the enemy on the left flank again pushed the 52nd and 15th divisions to the northern tip of the Lithuanian Peninsula.

Success accompanied the Red troops also in the offensive in the Chongar direction.
Here, on November 6–10, uninterrupted attacks by the defense of the Chongar fortifications continued.

On the night of November 10-11, the 30th Rifle Division (headed by I.K. Gryaznov), in cooperation with the 6th Cavalry Division, began an assault on the Wrangel fortifications in the Chongar area.
This was done in order to facilitate the advance of the Red Army near Ishuni.

At Tyup-Dzhankoy, the Reds broke through two (out of four) lines of defense.

The assault by the Reds (30th division) of the Chongar fortifications brought tangible results only by noon on November 11, when the main parts of the Chongar defenders were transferred to Ishuni.
On the morning of November 12, the Reds broke through the last line of the Chongar fortifications (capturing the station of Taganash) and broke into the Crimea.
Most of Chongar's defenders had already retreated to Dzhankoy by this time.

On November 11, the Reds managed to cross the Genik Strait and develop an offensive behind Wrangel's lines, along the Arabat Spit.
On the morning of November 12, units of the 9th Soviet division landed from the Arabat Spit on the Crimean peninsula at the mouth of the Salgir River.
Having overcome the stubborn defenses of the enemy on Chongar and, having outflanked the Ishun positions, they rushed behind enemy lines on the morning of November 12.
Aviation of the Southern Front supported the advancing troops ...

At the same time, on the opposite sector of the front (near the Black Sea - Karkinitsky Bay), the 51st division was able to capture two lines of trenches of the Ishun fortifications
On the night of November 11, General Kutepov offered to counterattack the Reds and take the lost positions on Ishuni.
But the spirit of the host was already undermined, the best commanders were killed or wounded.
Fierce fighting continued in the Ishuni area.
By the morning of November 11, the 51st Division, having beaten off a weak counterattack by the Whites, captured the last, third line of fortifications.
And by noon, with the assistance of the Latvian division, which was in reserve, it occupied the Yishun postal station.

It was the critical moment of the battle.
Without waiting for the complete encirclement, on the afternoon of November 11, the Whites began to retreat from all positions near Ishuni.

And then the whites threw into the counterattack a strong cavalry corps of General Barbovich (4 thousand sabers, 150 machine guns, 30 cannons, 5 armored cars) from the direction of Karpova Balka.
The situation was saved by a successful maneuver of the 2nd Cavalry Army.
Towards the white cavalry from the north, the lava of the red cavalry appeared. And, now, two horse avalanches rushed towards one another.
The two lavas were rapidly approaching. There are less than a thousand steps between them now.
And suddenly the red cavalry turned one to the right, the other to the left, the lava of the red cavalry parted ...

As Anatoly Znamensky describes:

“Already close was the roar of the hooves of someone else’s oncoming lava, wild cries and screams, whooping and whistling of hundreds going to the wheelhouse were already heard. It was already possible to distinguish, three or four hundred paces away, the foamy muzzles of the horses, the disheveled manes, the flickering of faces with wide-open, screaming mouths:
- Hurrah-ah-ah-ah...
- Yeah, drog-well-whether prok-la-tyi christo-seller-tsy, let's go to ras-syp-well-u-yu, mother in-your! .. R-r-cut!
The bearded sergeants and sergeants yelled, covering the second, entirely officer's lava. They got up on the stirrups, lowering their right hands with blades to the stripe for the "streak", the severity of the imminent blow. And, obeying a certain law of converging lavas, they went like a wedge into the gap formed by the red ones ... "

But it turned out that a chain of Makhnovist carts with machine guns was hidden behind the lava of the red cavalry.
And it was at this moment, in a fraction of a minute, that 250 carts of the Makhnovists turned around in front of the enemy!

“Jumping next to the division commander, Gorbunov saw from the height of the saddle with his own eyes all this amazing and terrible operation of machine-gun carts.
They practiced the maneuver exemplarily, he realized, because they all stood in a straight line, wheel to wheel, blunt machine gun barrels facing the attacking enemy cavalry. The machine gunners hunched behind their shields and squeezed the handles of the butt pads, and Fedorov gave the “fire” command at the right moment. And the thunder of heaven struck: the cavalry of General Barbovich fell into a flurry of six-layer machine-gun fire.

The first ranks of the enemy's cavalry were mowed down by lead rain.

“The horses fell, flew over their heads, stretched tightly in flight, the riders first drooped in their saddles, then threw up their arms and picturesquely, as in a bad dream, flew out of their saddles, disappeared below, in thick and already bloody dust. And from behind pressed new rows of those doomed to death.
It was an incredible, terrifying sight. Gorbunov had never seen anything like it during the two years of the war in the Tauride steppes. He did not hear anything like this from the old horsemen - it was a new maneuver of Mironov ... "

The surviving white riders turned and, fleeing the overtaking bullets, rushed back.
Mironov's horsemen rushed after them, cutting down the lagging whites.
Thus, the 2nd Cavalry Army, brought into battle, decisively repelled the attack of the Whites and put the enemy's cavalry corps to flight.

The Ishun grouping of the Reds began to attack the enemy in the rear, thus helping the units that were in an unenviable position, pressed by the Whites towards the Lithuanian Peninsula.

The White Army began to withdraw to the south, to the landing ports.
It was necessary to organize a quick pursuit of them.
However, the exhausted people needed rest.
Troops of the 6th Army received a daily allowance on November 12.

“I testify to the highest valor shown by the heroic infantry during the assaults on Sivash and Perekop. Units marched along narrow passages under deadly fire to the enemy's wire. Our losses are extremely heavy. Some divisions lost three-quarters of their strength. The total loss of killed and wounded during the assaults on the isthmuses is at least 10 thousand people. The armies of the front fulfilled their duty to the Republic. The last nest of Russian counter-revolution has been destroyed, and Crimea will once again become Soviet.”

"Black Baron" (Wrangel) November 12 ordered an urgent evacuation.
Pursued by formations of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies, Wrangel's troops hurriedly retreated to the ports of the Crimea.
On November 13, the 4th and 2nd Cavalry armies were sent to pursue the enemy on Feodosia and Kerch.
And the 6th and 1st Cavalry armies - in the direction of Evpatoria, Simferopol and Sevastopol.
Partisans stepped up operations behind enemy lines.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny in the book "The Path Traveled" wrote:

“The 1st Cavalry set out on a campaign on the morning of November 13th. By this time, units of the 6th and 2nd Cavalry Armies had already cut the highway to Simferopol, occupied the Dzhankoy station and the town of Kurman-Kemelchi, where the 2nd brigade of the 21st Cavalry Division especially distinguished itself ... We walked along the wounded, still smoking Crimean land where fighting has recently taken place. Broken wire fences, trenches, trenches, craters from shells and bombs. And then a wide steppe opened up before us. We spurred the horses."

On November 13, 1920, Simferopol was cleared of whites.
Mironov's cavalry was the first to enter there, leaving far behind the rifle units of Blucher's troops and the 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny.
On the way, she cut down up to 10 thousand fleeing enemy soldiers and captured 20 thousand.

On the morning of November 14, after a fierce night battle, the 30th Infantry Division, in cooperation with the 6th Cavalry Division, broke the fortified positions of the Wrangelites and launched an attack on Dzhankoy.
And the 9th Infantry Division crossed the strait near Genichesk.
At the same time, an amphibious assault on boats was landed in the Sudak area, which launched military operations behind enemy lines.
At the same time, the Latvian division entered Evpatoria.

On November 16, the 3rd Cavalry Corps liberated Kerch.
On the same day, Alushta and Yalta were also liberated.

This day is considered by many historians as the date of the end of the Civil War.

Wrangel's army was completely defeated.
True, some of the White Guards managed to board ships and sail to Turkey.
For 5 days (from November 10 to 15), having dispersed his loading to all ports of the Crimea, Wrangel managed to evacuate his main forces and refugees (according to various sources, from 83 to 145 thousand people).
However, in the Crimea there were many who wanted to leave: those who did not have enough transports, lagging behind parts of the army, as well as almost all military supplies.

M. Akulov and V. Petrov write:

“In the course of hostilities, only from October 28 to November 16, 1920, units of the Southern Front captured 52 thousand White Guard soldiers and officers, captured 276 guns, 7 armored trains, 15 armored vehicles, 100 steam locomotives, 34 ships of all types.
Military historians will call the offensive operation carried out by the troops of the front one of the most striking operations of the civil war. Experts will note the integrity of its concept, the sequence of implementation and the variety of forms of operational maneuver: the encirclement in Northern Tavria, the skillful use of detours in combination with frontal strikes when breaking through powerful defensive structures at Perekop, the concentration of superior forces in the main directions and their deep separation. And everyone will agree that it was Frunze’s military leadership talent, the increased art of command and control, the courage and dedication of the Red Army soldiers that made it possible to ensure the unconditional defeat of Wrangelism in a relatively short time.

Thus, by the end of 1920, the main forces of the interventionists and the Whites were defeated.
In the European part of Russia, after the capture of the Crimea, the last center of resistance of the White Guards was liquidated.
This meant the end of foreign military intervention and the Civil War in the center of the country.
The military question ceased to be the main one for Moscow.
An opportunity has opened up to move on to peaceful construction, and begin to restore the destroyed economy after the bloody battles that took place on its territory.

Evaluating all of the above, we can say that both sides showed courage.
But it's still not something to be proud of.
For example, the Battle of Poltava or the blockade of Leningrad are heroic pages in the history of Russia. For then we were fighting against outside invaders.
Whereas the defeat of Wrangel's troops in the Crimea was fratricidal abuse.
And nothing but sorrow causes ...

As you know, in the fall of 1920, Baron Wrangel visited the neighborhood of our town. This was his last offensive operation. You can even say that it was in the Donbass that the civil war really ended. About what emotions accompanied all this, we see from the publications in the newspaper "Krasnaya Pravda".

It was the organ of the Bakhmut district cell of the RCP (b). How uninteresting to read his miracle, if you hope to find something about local life here. Nothing happened: only reports from the fronts and all sorts of ideological struggles. But the emotional intensity in anticipation of Wrangel is conveyed perfectly.

First, the factual part. Here are three paragraphs taken by us from the friendly site donbass.NAME:

The summer offensive of the Russian army of Wrangel was stopped in the Tokmakov region. Having failed in his attempts to attack Moscow and break through to the location of the Polish Army, as well as the landing with a further attack on the Kuban, by the autumn of 1920 Wrangel decided to strike in the Donbass direction. On September 12, the attack on Yuzovka and Sinelnikovo began. As a result of the fighting on September 14-16, the Verkhnetokmak group of the Red Army was defeated in the Orekhov region; the way to Yuzovka was open to Wrangel. The White Guards occupied Tokmak, Pologi, Orekhov, Gulyai-Pole, Berdyansk; the defeated Red Army units retreated under Volnovakha. This is one of the reasons that prompted M. Frunze to seek peace with the anarchists.

Despite the fact that Wrangel failed to take Sinelnikovo (with the exception of a short raid on the knot), the offensive continued in the Donbass, on October 26, 1920, a Red Army sailor division was defeated in the battle near Starodubovka, which disarmed the Donbas grouping of the Red Army. Developing the offensive on Yuzovo, Ilovaiskaya, the Russian army on September 28 captured Volnovakha, Velikoanadol, Platonovka, Novotroitskoye, and on September 29 - Mariupol, reaching the villages of Pavlopol, Novonikolaevka, Aslanovo station. On September 30, the Russian army reached the approaches to Yuzovka, occupying the Dolya and Elenovka stations. Having beaten off the counterattacks of the Red Army from the Olginka region, the Russian army pushed back the small Red Army units to Kremennaya (Aleksandrovka), raiding the stations of Yuzovo, Karavannaya, Mandrykino.

However, the next day, Wrangel significantly weakens the Donbas grouping of the Russian army, in order to transfer part of the troops to the Kakhovka bridgehead, captured by the Red Army on the left bank of the Dnieper. This step caused an immediate reaction of the Red Army soldiers defending Yuzovka: the Red Army captured Olginka and Novotroitsky with a counterattack, on October 2 the Russian army, having pressed the Red Army, restored its positions in Aleksandrovka and Novotroitsky, the next day the White Guards again captured Yelenovka, pushing the Red Army to Maryinka. However, the breakthrough of the red cavalry in Gulyai-Polye forced Wrangel on October 4 to withdraw units of the Russian army from the Donbass. On October 5, the Red Army occupied Mariupol, advancing to Rozovka and Tsarekonstantinovka. On October 8, the Red Army detachments, which had only yesterday been catching Makhno on the Don, went over to the offensive on Gulyai-Pole.

Well, now let's move on to fragments from the newspaper Krasnaya Pravda. Here's what her hat looked like:

Note the unbridled enthusiasm for the capture of Warsaw. As usual, journalists learned everything from reliable sources.

In mid-September, when Wrangel really went to the Donbass, Krasnaya Pravda released a whole special issue dedicated to this topic. Here is the first strip:

Well, and then, in ascending order:

A month later, when Wrangel left the Donbass and it became clear that he would not return, he ceased to be of interest to the editors of Krasnaya Pravda (editor-in-chief Rosenbaum). Well, except that in pursuit of the enemy to write about his atrocities. The issue of October 31, in the article "Atrocities of the Whites", gives a story about the horrors in colony No. 1 of Novozlatopol, Aleksandrovsky district - a broad picture of bullying of civilians and especially Jews. The colony changed hands 6 times, and every time there were atrocities. Warriors of goodness and light broke into apartments, robbed, beaten. They raped "women and teenage girls in front of m mothers." In general, who were you waiting for, the Orthodox, who were you hoping for?

The last nail in the symbolic coffin of the "black barnoa" was hammered in by Krasnaya Pravda on November 16, 1920. Here it is:

More about the civil war Donbass did not think.

In the summer of 1920, Wrangel made attempts to move north from the Crimea.

In autumn, the Wrangel troops approached the Donbass.

On July 10, the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in a letter addressed to all party organizations in the country, pointed out the need for the fastest liquidation of Wrangelism.

“The attention of the party must be concentrated on the Crimean front,” this letter said, “... we cannot delay further. must be destroyed, as were destroyed and .

By decision of the Central Committee of the Party, the Southern Front was formed against the Wrangelites and a plan was developed to defeat the enemy.

One of the most important elements of this plan was the creation of a strategic foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper.

Holding down the enemy's actions, constantly threatening him with a blow to the rear, the Kakhovka bridgehead played a big role in achieving final victory for the Soviet troops. From August to October, the Wrangel troops fiercely attacked the Kakhovka bridgehead.

The elite units of the White Guards, supported by tanks and artillery, went on the assault.

But the soldiers of the 15th and 51st divisions stationed here heroically repelled all attacks. With remarkable courage, the Red Army fought against enemy tanks.

Most of the enemy tanks were destroyed or captured.

Kakhovka became a symbol of the heroism of Soviet soldiers during the days of fighting with the interventionists and the White Guards.

After the conclusion of a preliminary peace with Poland, the Soviet government reinforced the Southern Front (commander M.V. Frunze, members of the Revolutionary Military Council S.I. Gusev and Bela Kun) with new units. At the end of October, Soviet troops went on the offensive.

The 1st Cavalry Army, transferred from the Polish front, dealt a crushing blow to the Wrangelites from the Kakhovka bridgehead. In early November, the troops of the Southern Front expelled the Wrangelites from southern Ukraine. The army retreated to the Crimea.

The Red Army had to make the last effort - to take the fortifications that covered the road to the Crimea, and complete the defeat of the Wrangelites. It was not an easy task.

On the narrow and long isthmuses connecting the Crimean peninsula with the mainland, the strongest fortifications were erected under the guidance of foreign specialists.

The Red Army men were blocked by barbed wire, ditches, embankments, trenches.

Powerful artillery, hundreds of machine guns shot through every inch of the earth.

The enemy considered the approaches to the Crimea insurmountable. But for the Soviet fighters, inspired by the desire to destroy the last nest of intervention and the White Guard, there were no insurmountable obstacles.

The operational plan provided for an attack on the Perekop and Chongar fortifications with the simultaneous forcing of the lake-swampy strip of the Sivash (Rotten Sea), which the Wrangelites considered impassable.

On the night of November 8, 1920, on the third anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Soviet troops went through the swamps and salt lakes of Sivash. Horses and guns got stuck in the mud.

An icy wind blew, the wet clothes of the fighters froze over. In the middle of the night, the advanced Red Army units approached the White Guard fortifications.

Under heavy enemy fire, an assault column, consisting almost entirely of communists, rushed forward. Having thrown back the White Guards, the Soviet soldiers entrenched themselves on the Crimean coast.

On November 8, the assault on the Wrangel fortifications on the Perekop Isthmus began. After several hours of attack, the 51st Rifle Division, commanded by V.K. Blucher, occupied the Turkish Wall.

After that, enemy positions on the Chongar Isthmus and other fortified lines of the White Guards were broken through. The regiments of the 1st Cavalry Army moved rapidly into the gap.

M. V. Frunze in a telegram to V. I. Lenin wrote excitedly about the heroism of Soviet soldiers: “I testify to the highest valor shown by the heroic infantry during the assaults on Sivash and Perekop.

Units marched along narrow passages under deadly fire at the enemy's wire. Our losses are extremely heavy.

Some divisions lost three-quarters of their strength. The total loss of killed and wounded during the assaults on the isthmuses is at least 10 thousand people. The armies of the front have fulfilled their duty to the Republic.

She was utterly smashed. Its remnants hastily embarked on British and French ships and evacuated from the Crimea. The Soviet country triumphed.

“The glorious sons of the revolution defeated Wrangel with selfless courage, heroic exertion of strength. Long live our Red Army, the great army of labor!” - under this heading, Pravda announced the victory of the Soviet people.

At the end of 1920 - beginning of 1921, the last centers of intervention and counter-revolution in Transcaucasia were eliminated.

In November 1920, the working people of Armenia, led by an underground communist organization, raised an armed uprising against the rule of the Dashnaks.

On November 29, the Revolutionary Committee formed in Caravanserai declared Armenia a Socialist Soviet Republic.

The government of the RSFSR sent units of the 11th Army to help the rebellious workers and peasants of Armenia. On December 2, Soviet power established itself in Yerevan.

By this time, the struggle for Soviet power in Georgia also intensified. The Mensheviks turned Georgia into a colony of foreign imperialism and brought it to the brink of disaster. There was no bread in the cities and villages. Industry froze.

In February 1921, the communists of Georgia called on the working people to revolt to overthrow the Menshevik government. A Revolutionary Committee was created, which proclaimed Georgia a Socialist Soviet Republic and turned to Soviet Russia for help.

On February 25, detachments of insurgent workers and peasants, together with units of the Red Army, entered Tbilisi. In mid-March, Soviet power was established throughout Georgia.

Heavy battles were waged by the Soviet people for the liberation of the Far East. At the beginning of April 1920, the Japanese invaders, seeking to consolidate the occupation of the Far East, treacherously attacked the armed forces of the people's power in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Spassk, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky and other large centers and returned the White Guards to power.

These days, the leader of the Far Eastern partisans S. G. Lazo and members of the Military Council A. N. Lutsky and V. M. Sibirtsev were captured by the White Guards. The executioners burned the patriotic heroes in a locomotive firebox.

With the support of the Japanese interventionists, the White Guards strengthened their positions in the areas they captured and in Transbaikalia. The dominance of the Semyonovtsy and Kappelevtsy in Transbaikalia (especially in Chita) prevented the unification of the regions of the Far Eastern Republic and communication between them.

In order to eliminate the "Chita traffic jam", the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic launched a series of attacks; however, whenever the defeat of the whites became obvious, Japanese troops entered the battle, and the command of the People's Revolutionary Army, despite the favorable prospects for battle, withdrew troops so as not to succumb to the provocation of war with Japan.

Meanwhile, the Japanese command became more and more convinced of the impossibility of capturing the entire Far East. Revolutionary and anti-war sentiments intensified in the Japanese troops.

By mid-October 1920, the Japanese withdrew their troops from Transbaikalia, the Amur Region, concentrating them in South Primorye.

In October 1920, the troops of the Amur Front defeated the Semyonov and Kappelevites and liberated Chita.

But the main task - the complete expulsion of the interventionists from Primorye - remained unresolved.

The White Guard Command attached great importance to the retention of the Crimean Peninsula, since it could be used in the future as a springboard for waging a struggle against the Soviet Republic. Therefore, despite the loss of Northern Tavria, Wrangel hoped to wear down the Soviet troops and prevent their breakthrough into the Crimea by a dull defense in previously prepared positions. The total number of White Guard troops was about 41 thousand bayonets and sabers. The enemy was armed with over 200 guns, up to 20 armored vehicles, 3 tanks and 5 armored trains444. The Perekop Isthmus was defended by units of the 2nd Army Corps (13th and 34th Infantry Divisions), Drozdovskaya, Markovskaya Infantry Divisions, and part of the forces of the Cavalry Corps. On the Lithuanian Peninsula, the brigade of the Kuban division of General P.P. Fostikov occupied positions. The Chongar Isthmus was defended by units of the 3rd Don Corps and a group of General Kaltserov. In the Yushun (Ishun) area, Dzhankoy, the reserve regiments of the Markov, Kornilov and 6th infantry divisions, as well as the rest of the cavalry corps, were concentrated. In addition, the 15th Infantry Division was urgently formed in the rear, designed to reinforce the Perekop or Chongar direction. Part of the forces (up to 6 thousand people) fought against the Crimean rebel army. Thus, Wrangel concentrated almost all of his troops (up to 27 thousand bayonets and sabers) on the Perekop and Chongar isthmuses, since he believed that an offensive through the Sivash445 to the Lithuanian Peninsula was impossible.

Powerful fortified positions for that time were created on the isthmuses. Their engineering equipment was carried out from the end of 1919. British and French military specialists participated in the development of the plan for strengthening the Perekop Isthmus. All fortification work was led by General Fok.

Two fortified strips were created in the Perekop direction - Perekopskaya and Yushunskaya (Ishunskaya). The basis of the first was the Turkish shaft, about 11 km long and up to 10 m high. In front of it was a ditch about 30 m wide and up to 10 m deep. The shaft and the surrounding area were equipped with full-profile trenches, machine-gun and artillery firing positions with strong shelters, related message paths. The approaches to the shaft were covered with wire barriers in 3-5 rows of stakes. On the Turkish Wall, the enemy installed over 70 guns and about 150 machine guns, which made it possible to keep the entire area ahead under fire. From the west, from the side of the Karkinitsky Gulf, the first strip was covered by the fire of enemy ships, and in the east, the Turkish Wall rested against the Sivash.

The Yushunskaya strip (20-25 km south of Perekopskaya) consisted of six lines of trenches with communication passages, concreted machine-gun nests and shelters. Each line was covered with barbed wire in 3-5 rows. The Yushun strip closed the exits from the isthmus to the flat part of the Crimean peninsula and made it possible to keep the front area under fire. Its flanks rested against numerous lakes and bays. On the Chongar Isthmus and the Arabat Spit, 5-6 lines of trenches were equipped, covered with wire fences in 3 rows of stakes. The weakest was the defense on the Lithuanian peninsula. There were only two lines of trenches here, covering the fords across the bay in the most likely directions for the crossing of Soviet troops.

For the first time in the years of the civil war, the enemy managed to create a significant tactical density in the Perekop and Chongar directions: an average of 125-130 bayonets and sabers, 15-20 machine guns and 5-10 guns per 1 km of the front. The White Guard propaganda, trying to raise the morale of soldiers and officers, inspired them that the defenses created on the isthmuses were impregnable. On October 30, Wrangel, in the presence of foreign representatives, inspected the fortifications and presumptuously declared: “Much has been done, much remains to be done, but the Crimea is already impregnable for the enemy”446. However, the events that followed showed the complete failure of his forecasts.

The troops of the Southern Front, after the completion of the operation in Northern Tavria, occupied the following position: the 6th Army was on the line of the northern coast of the Black Sea, from the mouth of the Dnieper to Stroganovka on the banks of the Sivash; to the left, from Gromovka to Genichesk, the 4th Army was located, on its right flank in the Gromovka, Novo-Pokrovka area, the Insurgent Army concentrated, transferred to the operational subordination of the commander of the 4th Army; in the rear of the 4th Army, in the area of ​​​​Novo-Mikhailovka, Otrada, Rozhdestvenka, stood the 1st Cavalry Army, and behind it the 2nd Cavalry Army; The 13th army, having transferred the 2nd rifle, 7th cavalry divisions and the 3rd cavalry corps to the command of the commander of the 4th army, located south of Melitopol, entering the front reserve. The Azov military flotilla was based in the Taganrog Bay. In total, the troops of the Southern Front by November 8, 1920 numbered 158.7 thousand bayonets and 39.7 thousand cavalry. They were armed with 3059 machine guns, 550 guns, 57 armored vehicles, 23 armored trains and 84 aircraft447. In general, Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in bayonets and sabers by 4.9 times, in guns - by 2.1 times.

The plan of the Perekop-Chongar operation, developed by the command and headquarters of the front in an extremely short time (5 days), followed from the plan of the strategic offensive operation of the Southern Front and constituted its second part. At the same time, the plan developed on October 2-4 to break through the enemy defenses on the Crimean isthmuses was taken into account. By this time, according to Soviet intelligence, the Wrangelites had 214 guns (85 guns in the Perekop direction and 129 guns in the Chongar direction), 26 armored vehicles, 19 armored trains, 19 tanks and 24 aircraft. According to the estimates of the front headquarters, 400 guns, 21 armored trains, 16 armored vehicles, 15 tanks and 26 448 aircraft were required to break through the defenses on both isthmuses. As can be seen from the data presented, the front command managed to fulfill these requests, with the exception of tanks.

Initially, given that the Perekop and Chongar directions were most strongly fortified, the command planned to deliver the main blow by the forces of the 4th Army from the Salkovo area while simultaneously bypassing the enemy’s defenses with an operational group consisting of the 3rd Cavalry Corps and the 9th Infantry Division through the Arabat arrow. This made it possible to withdraw the troops of the front deep into the Crimean peninsula and use the support of the Azov military flotilla from the sea. Then, by bringing into battle the mobile group of the front (1st Cavalry Army), it was supposed to develop success in the Chongar direction. At the same time, a similar maneuver was taken into account, successfully carried out in 1738 by Russian troops led by Field Marshal P.P. However, to ensure this maneuver, it was necessary to defeat the enemy flotilla, supported by American, British and French warships, which could approach the Arabat Spit and conduct flanking fire on Soviet troops. The task of defeating the enemy flotilla was assigned to the Azov military flotilla. But the early freeze-up fettered her ships in the roadstead of Taganrog, and she was unable to fulfill the order of the front command.

Therefore, two days before the start of the operation, the main blow was transferred to the Perekop direction. The idea of ​​the Perekop-Chongar operation was to seize the first and second lines of defense with a simultaneous attack by the 6th Army from the front and a detour by its strike group through the Sivash and the Lithuanian Peninsula. An auxiliary strike by the forces of the 4th Army was planned in the Chongar direction. Then, by the joint efforts of both armies, it was planned to dismember the enemy troops, defeat them in parts, bring into battle the mobile groups of the front (1st and 2nd Cavalry armies) and the 4th army (3rd cavalry corps) relentlessly pursue the retreating enemy in directions to Evpatoria, Simferopol, Sevastopol and Feodosia, preventing its evacuation from the Crimea.The cavalry detachment of the Insurgent Army, numbering about 2 thousand people, was supposed to participate in the pursuit. communications of the Wrangelites and to assist the units of the Red Army advancing from the front.

The choice of a new direction of the main attack in the midst of preparations for the operation testifies to the high military talent of MV Frunze, the flexibility and courage of his leadership of the troops, and his ability to take risks. And the risk was great, since a sudden change in the wind could raise the water level in the bay and put the crossing troops in an extremely difficult situation.

To build up efforts and ensure the rapid development of a breakthrough, a deep echeloned formation of front troops was envisaged. It included the first echelon (6th and 4th armies), mobile groups (1st and 2nd Cavalry armies), the reserve - the 13th army and the Combined cadet rifle division. The operational formation of the 6th Army was two-echelon with the allocation of the Latvian Rifle Division to the reserve, the 4th Army was three-echelon with the allocation of a mobile group (3rd Cavalry Corps) and a reserve (International Cavalry Brigade). The combat order of rifle divisions was built in 2-3 echelons. Such a deep construction was due to the relatively small width of the isthmuses, the need to break through the heavily fortified and deeply echeloned enemy defenses. In addition, it ensured the timely buildup of strike force, as well as the successful pursuit of the retreating enemy.

Shock groups were created in the armies of the first echelon of the front. In the 6th Army, the strike group included two (15th and 52nd) rifle divisions and the 153rd rifle brigade of the 51st rifle division, as well as its separate cavalry brigade - almost 50 percent of the army. Two brigades of the 51st Rifle Division (first echelon) and the Latvian Rifle Division (second echelon) were intended for a frontal attack on heavily fortified Perekop positions located on flat, devoid of any folds terrain. The strike group of the 4th army included the 30th rifle division, behind which the 23rd (second echelon) and 46th (third echelon) rifle divisions were to advance.

Much attention was paid to the formation of breakthrough groups (later they were called assault groups) and the training of fighters to attack in battle formation in waves. The first wave was a breakthrough group, which included scouts, sappers, demolition workers, wire cutters, grenade launchers and 2-3 machine gun crews. In the second wave, two battalions from each regiment of the first echelon were allocated, in the third - the third battalions of the regiments of the first echelon, in the fourth - regiments of the second echelon, in the fifth and sixth - reserves or regiments of the third echelon.

Artillery support for the breakthrough was built taking into account the nature of the terrain and the availability of artillery. The artillery of the strike group of the 6th Army (36 guns) was assigned divisionally to the brigades of the first echelon. The most powerful artillery group (55 guns) was concentrated in the Perekop direction, subordinate to the chief of artillery of the 51st rifle division and divided into three subgroups: two - to provide first-echelon brigades and one (anti-battery) - to suppress artillery and enemy reserves. A group of 25 guns was created in the Chongar direction. Artillery was responsible for artillery preparation of the attack and escort (support) of the advancing troops. The duration of artillery preparation before the assault on the Perekop positions was planned at 4 hours. Due to the skillful massing of forces and means in the Perekop direction, it was possible to create a tactical density per 1 km of the front: 1.5-4 thousand bayonets, 60-80 machine guns, 10-12 guns1.

The engineering troops of the front and armies conducted reconnaissance of approaches to the enemy defenses and fords across the Sivash, fixed routes, prepared crossing facilities (boats, rafts), restored bridges, and equipped supply and evacuation routes. The local population provided great assistance to the engineering units in reconnaissance and equipment of the fords. All work was carried out mainly at night, in severe frost, under artillery and machine-gun fire from the enemy.

Aviation conducted aerial reconnaissance, photographed enemy fortifications, bombed the rear and enemy reserves. The aviation units of the 6th and 1st Cavalry armies were, as before, concentrated in the hands of one chief and aimed at ensuring a breakthrough of the Perekop fortifications. With the beginning of the attack in the Chongar direction, all aviation of the front was subordinate to the commander of the 4th Army.

Much attention was paid to training personnel in techniques and ways to overcome artificial obstacles. To this end, units of the first echelon underwent training in the rear on specially created training camps that imitate enemy defenses on the isthmuses.

The task of party political work was to mobilize fighters and commanders to successfully overcome enemy fortifications and conduct an offensive at a high pace. The troops widely celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Rallies and meetings were held under the slogans: “Give Perekop by the third anniversary of October!”, “Give Crimea!”. In accordance with the instructions of S. S. Kamenev of November 5, all communists from the rear and reserve units were sent to the formations that were to force the Sivash. To carry out the most complex and important tasks, three separate communist battalions were formed under the overall command of the chief of the communist detachments2.

The operation was being prepared under exceptionally difficult conditions: the rear was lagging behind, mud and impassability made it difficult for the timely transfer of heavy artillery, the supply of reinforcements, ammunition and food. “To this we must add the established unusually cold weather - frosts reached 10 °, - recalled M.V. Frunze, - while the vast majority of the troops did not have warm uniforms, they were forced at the same time very often to be located in the open air "3.

Before the start of the operation, M. V. Frunze, with members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Front, M. K. Vladimirov and I. T. Smilga, toured the troops, visited the headquarters of the armies, where all the details of the upcoming operation and the methods for its implementation were clarified. one

Military Bulletin, 1938, No. 11, p. 33.2

See: M.V. Frunze on the Fronts of the Civil War, p. 424.

Frunze M. V. Selected works. M., 1984, p. 102. The offensive of the Soviet troops began on the night of November 8. The strike group of the 6th Army in 15-degree frost, in icy water, crossed the Sivash along three fords. The communists walked ahead and with them the head of the political department of the 15th Inza Rifle Division, A. A. Yanysheva. Parts of the Shock Group defeated the Kuban brigade and occupied the Lithuanian Peninsula at dawn.

At the same time, a specially created assault column, consisting almost entirely of communists, distinguished itself. The local resident I. I. Olenchuk rendered great help to the Red Army soldiers when crossing the eight-kilometer bay. (During the Great Patriotic War, he repeated his feat, assisting the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front in forcing the bay.) The White Guard command, which did not expect the offensive of the Soviet troops through the Sivash, removed units of the 1st Army Corps from this direction to replace the badly battered in battles in Northern Tavria units of the 2nd Army Corps. After the Shock Group of the 6th Army crossed to the Lithuanian Peninsula, Wrangel urgently transferred here part of the forces of the 34th Infantry Division and his closest reserve, the 15th Infantry Division, reinforcing them with armored vehicles. However, they could not contain the offensive impulse of the Strike Group, which rushed to the Yushun positions, to the rear of the enemy's Perekop grouping.

On the morning of November 8, after a four-hour artillery preparation, units of the 51st Infantry Division, with the support of 15 armored vehicles, began the assault on the Turkish Wall. However, because of the fog, the artillery was unable to reliably suppress the enemy's firepower. During the three frontal attacks of the shaft, the division suffered heavy losses from enemy machine-gun and artillery fire and was forced to lie down in front of the moat. At that time, in the Chongar direction, the troops of the 4th Army were still preparing to go over to the offensive. The offensive of the 9th Rifle Division along the Arabat Spit was thwarted by the fire of enemy ships.

On the afternoon of November 8, the situation on the Lithuanian peninsula became more complicated, as the wind suddenly changed and the water in Sivash began to rise. As a result, there was a threat of complete isolation on the peninsula of the units of the Shock Group of the 6th Army. Assessing the current situation, M.V. Frunze took immediate measures to reinforce the troops in the Perekop direction and the Lithuanian peninsula. He ordered the 2nd Cavalry Army to concentrate in the Perekop area, and with one division to support the attack of the 51st Infantry Division, which was to immediately resume the assault on the Turkish Wall. Residents of Vladimirovka, Stroganovka and other villages were mobilized to equip the fords across the Sivash. To support the Shock Group 6-

The 7th Cavalry Divisions of the 2nd Cavalry Army and the cavalry detachment of the Insurrectionary Army were sent to the 1st Army

At four o'clock in the morning on November 9, units of V.K. Blucher's division during the fourth attack, supported by armored vehicles, under heavy enemy fire, blinded by searchlights, captured the Turkish Wall, skillfully bypassing part of the forces of its left flank fording along the western part of the Perekop Bay. The strike group of the 6th Army intensified the onslaught on the Lithuanian Peninsula, which forced the enemy to weaken the defenses in the Perekop directions and begin a retreat to the second lane. By morning, 7-

I was a cavalry division and the Makhnovists, who, together with the 52nd Infantry Division, began to push the Wrangel troops to Yushun. The 15th Rifle and 16th Cavalry Divisions were successfully advancing in the same direction. At the same time, an amphibious assault on boats was landed in the Sudak region, which, together with the Crimean partisans, launched military operations behind enemy lines.

In order to contain the offensive of the Soviet troops, the White Guard command was forced to transfer the 3rd Don Corps to the Yushun positions with the task, together with the Cavalry Corps and the Drozdov Infantry Division, to hold the second line of defense. At this time, the front commander M.V. Frunze went to the headquarters of the 4th Army in order to speed up the transition of its troops to the offensive. On the night of November I, the 30th Rifle Division, in cooperation with the 6th Cavalry Division, despite the heavy fire of enemy machine guns and guns, broke through the Chongar fortifications and began to develop success in the Dzhankoy direction, and the 9th Rifle Division crossed the strait near Genichesk. The enemy had to urgently turn back the 3rd Don Corps to eliminate the breakthrough of the troops of the 4th Army.

The offensive also developed successfully in the Perekop direction. By the evening of November 10, the 52nd Rifle Division reached the third line of the Yushun positions, and the rest of the formations located on the peninsula repelled the fierce counterattacks of the units of the 1st Army and Cavalry Corps. The 2nd Cavalry Army was transferred to this area, which on November 11 crushed and put to flight the enemy's cavalry corps. This day was a turning point in the Perekop-Chongar operation. The threat of losing the escape route forced the enemy to start a retreat along the entire front.

M. V. Frunze, seeking to avoid further bloodshed, suggested that the Wrangelites stop resistance, which was already pointless, and lay down their arms. However, Wrangel hid the Soviet proposal from his troops. The enemy, hiding behind strong cavalry rearguards, managed to break away for one or two transitions from the Soviet troops and hastily retreated to the Black Sea ports. Confusion reigned in the White Guard units. The officers fired. The soldiers threw out white flags.

The pursuit of the enemy began. The troops of the 6th Army were advancing on Evpatoria, Simferopol, Sevastopol; behind them was the 1st Cavalry Army. Formations of the 4th Army pursued the enemy, retreating to Feodosia and Kerch, and the 2nd Cavalry Army advanced on Simferopol. From the rear, the Crimean partisans delivered blows to the enemy, whose representative, ID Papanin, delivered weapons and ammunition from the headquarters of the Southern Front on a boat. The rebel army, instead of participating in the completion of the defeat of the enemy, took up looting. Therefore, the front command had to allocate part of the forces to neutralize it. Then the Makhnovists left the Crimea and again began the struggle against Soviet power.

In the area of ​​the Kurman-Kemelchi station, the Wrangel troops, with the support of artillery and two armored trains, tried to detain the Soviet troops, but were defeated by formations of the 2nd Cavalry Army. The 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the 21st Cavalry Division, whose commander, M. A. Ekon, especially distinguished himself in this battle, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The enemy did not manage to linger at the Dzhankoy station either, where the 2nd Cavalry Division and a separate cavalry brigade of the 2nd Cavalry Army took more than 4,000 prisoners and up to 200 wagons with cargo. After that, the 2nd Cavalry Army began advancing to Simferopol, where, under the leadership of the partisan A. Skripnichenko, an uprising began on November 10 and power passed to the Revolutionary Committee, headed by a member of the Crimean underground regional party committee V. S. Vasiliev449. Two days later, the soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Army entered Simferopol.

On November 14, the troops of the 4th Army liberated Feodosia, and the troops of the 1st Cavalry and 6th Armies the next day - Sevastopol, where power had passed into the hands of the Revolutionary Committee the day before. On November 16, the 3rd Cavalry Corps liberated Kerch. The troops of the front were greatly assisted by aviation, which struck at enemy ships in the ports of Evpatoria and Feodosia. On November 16, M. V. Frunze and Bela Kun sent a telegram to V. I. Lenin: “Today Kerch is occupied by our cavalry. The southern front has been liquidated"450.

The remnants of the Russian White Guard Army, with the help of the American Red Cross, fled to Constantinople on transport ships under the cover of Entente warships. The flight was so hasty that only people with hand luggage boarded the ships. Fights broke out for places, guns and military equipment rushed in a panic. In total, up to 150,000 people were evacuated from Crimea along with refugees, including about 70,000 officers and soldiers451. The Perekop-Chongar operation ended in victory for the troops of the Southern Front. An important and economically rich region was returned to the country. V. I. Lenin highly appreciated the outstanding victory of the Red Army. He said: “You know, of course, what extraordinary heroism the Red Army showed, overcoming such obstacles and such fortifications that even military experts and authorities considered impregnable. One of the most brilliant pages in the history of the Red Army is that complete, decisive and remarkably quick victory won over Wrangel. Thus, the war imposed on us by the White Guards and the imperialists turned out to be liquidated.

The whole country celebrated the victory of the Soviet troops on the Southern Front. On December 24, the Council of Labor and Defense declared gratitude to the troops of the front for selfless courage, exceptional energy and political consciousness in the struggle for the realization of the ideals of the workers' and peasants' revolution. Parades were held in a number of cities in honor of the victory achieved. Such a parade, for example, took place on November 22 in Omsk453. For military merit, more than 40 formations, units and subunits of the Southern Front were awarded the Order of the Red Banner and Honorary Revolutionary Red Banners of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and several thousand soldiers, commanders and political workers were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The formations that especially distinguished themselves in battles received honorary titles: the 15th division - Sivash, the 51st - Perekop, the 30th rifle and 6th cavalry divisions - Chongarsky. In honor of the glorious deeds of the 2nd Cavalry Army, committed during the defeat of the Wrangel troops, a memorial plaque was erected on the building where the headquarters of one of its divisions was located in Nikopol, and an obelisk was erected on the mound of Glory in the village of Sholokhovo. The Soviet troops paid a heavy price for the victory achieved. During the assault on the Perekop and Chongar isthmus alone, about 10,000 soldiers were killed and wounded454 An obelisk was also erected in memory of the heroes who died during the assault on Perekop and Chongar.

Honorary revolutionary weapons were awarded to M. V. Frunze, A. I. Kork, F. K. Mironov, K. E. Voroshilov and N. D. Kashirin. Among those awarded the Order of the Red Banner, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Front, S. I. Gusev; army commanders I. P. Uborevich and V. S. Lazarevich; members of the revolutionary military councils of the armies D. V. Poluyan, K. A. Makoshin; division chiefs I. F. Fedko, S. K. Timoshenko, O. I. Gorodovikov, A. Ya. Parkhomenko, I. I. Raudmets, and I. K. Gryaznov; military commissar of the division M. L. Belotsky; brigade commanders N. P. Kolesov, M. Ya. Germanovich, M. V. Kalmykov, N. V. Medvedev; the military commissar of the regiment (then the brigade) D. A. Vainerkh-Vainyarkh; battalion commander F. D. Rubtsov; head of the communications department of the front N. M. Sinyavsky; artillery battalion commander L. A. Govorov; The second Order of the Red Banner was awarded to the division commander V.K. Blucher and the military commissar of the division A.M. Gordon.

During the fighting (October 28 - November 16, 1920), the troops of the Southern Front captured 52.1 thousand soldiers and officers, captured 276 guns, 7 armored trains, 15 armored cars, 100 locomotives and 34 ships of all types455. The defeat of the Wrangelites marked the complete and final failure of the Entente's last campaign against the Land of the Soviets, the collapse of all the plans of the imperialists to strangle Soviet power by military means. The three-year war in defense of the Great October Revolution against the invasion of imperialist predators and the forces of internal counter-revolution ended in a world-historic victory for the Soviet people. Lenin's order to complete the defeat of the Wrangelites before the onset of winter was fulfilled

The strategic offensive operation of the Southern Front, carried out in a relatively short time (20 days) and to a depth of 350-420 km, can be considered one of the most brilliant operations of the Red Army. It included two front-line offensive operations consistent in depth, united by a single plan. During the first (counteroffensive in Northern Tavria), Soviet troops crossed the Dnieper, broke through the defenses hastily occupied by the enemy on its left bank, defeated the main forces of the Wrangelites in Northern Tavria and reached the Perekop and Chongar isthmuses. The second operation (Perekop-Chongar) was carried out after a short operational pause of four days and included the crossing of the Sivash, the breakthrough of the heavily fortified Perekop positions, the pursuit of the retreating enemy and the complete liberation of the Crimean peninsula.

Front offensive operations were distinguished by a large scale. In the course of them, there was a continuous build-up of front forces, which made it possible to achieve almost fivefold superiority over the enemy. A feature of the counteroffensive in Northern Tavria was the continuous narrowing of the offensive zone, which was determined both by a form of operational maneuver to encircle (two-sided coverage of the main enemy forces in combination with frontal strikes), and and the configuration of the combat area. The depth of the operation in Northern Tavria was 150-100 km, in Perekop-Chongarskaya - 200-250 km. The operations were completed in a relatively short period of time (7-9 days), with an average advance rate of 25-30 km per day.

Soviet troops have accumulated extensive experience in breaking through well-prepared and well-engineered enemy defenses in hard-to-reach terrain and in very adverse weather conditions. To break through the enemy defenses, special assault columns and strike groups (detachments) were created. A decisive role in the breakthrough was played by a deep operational bypass of the Shock Group of the 6th Army through the Lithuanian Peninsula and part of the forces of the 51st Infantry Division of the enemy’s left flank on the Turkish Wall. The operational formation of troops in the main directions was deeply echeloned. The efforts of the troops of the first echelon were increased by bringing into the breakthrough the second echelons, reserves, mobile groups of the front and the army.

During the breakthrough, artillery and aviation were used centrally, and armored forces - decentralized. In the 6th Army, an artillery group of army significance was created, and as part of its Strike Group, maneuverable batteries, which advanced after the infantry and supported it with fire and wheels.

The main forms of operational maneuver were: in Northern Tavria - encirclement, in the Perekop-Chongar operation - strikes in order to cut the enemy's front and destroy it in parts. The main blow in Northern Tavria was inflicted on the weakest and most vulnerable place in the enemy's defense, and in the Perekop-Chongar operation - from the front on the strongest place in the enemy defense, and the width of the breakthrough section was 25-30 percent of the total width of the offensive front.

The most important condition for achieving the complete defeat of the enemy was the superiority of the Southern Front in cavalry, the close interaction of all branches of the armed forces with each other and with aviation.

• Russian pretty girl soldier in an attractive uniform
• Inductive method, its description and application features
• Functions and basic elements of the human nervous system General plan of the structure and significance of the nervous system
• Battle of Grunwald. Battle of Grunwald. History and significance Decisive battle with Grunwald
• The history of the development of science "Microbiology
• The cytoplasm of a bacterial cell
• Nomenclature of complex compounds
• Towers and stone suns of Freestyle Accident
• Architectural bureau SPEECH: close-up Project bureau SPEECH
• The best shots from the archive of the TASS agency Chronicles of TASS

• The beginning of the publication of the TASS photo archive in the public domain and the ap video collection on youtube TASS Photo Library
• Ways of personal self-development People engaged in self-development
• Visual support methods
• Rasputin Grigory Efimovich biography
• The heroic battle of the Pskov brigade of the GRU special forces (24 photos)
• Fgos preschool education IV
• Methods of analysis in analytical chemistry (chemical, physical and physico-chemical)
• Estonia and the Baltic countries: were they part of the USSR and what are the consequences of this stay?
• Unknown history of Russia: "Battle of Molodi
• Battle of Molodi: a repeat of the Kulikovo victory